For many, reality TV is another name for “trash TV”, one that is low-brow and voyeuristic, offering little or no educational value. For Star Plus, India Ke Top 1%, a logic-based reality show to be hosted by veteran actor Anil Kapoor, might just be the lever to get male audiences back to its fold.
The show, which is scheduled to start airing this festive season, will also look to revive the channel’s appointment viewing schedule during the weekends. “Fiction caters to our core audience (read women); non-fiction helps us broaden that audience, create appointment viewing and bring families together around a shared viewing experience,” says Sumanta Bose, head, entertainment business, Star Plus, Star Bharat and Star Utsav, East & West Cluster, JioStar.
For years now, the network has focused almost exclusively on running daily fiction serials and soap operas. In fact, Star Plus has not aired a major reality series since 2022, when it ran the celebrity game show Ravivaar with Star Parivaar for three months with a total of 16 episodes but never brought it back with another season. Instead, it focussed on building its fiction portfolio around women-centric narratives like Anupamaa (six years), Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai (17 years) and the resurrected Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (one year), which helped build a deeply loyal audience base, defining the channel’s commercial success.
On the other hand, shows like Bigg Boss, hosted by Salman Khan on Colors TV, and Kaun Banega Crorepati, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan on Sony TV, and Khatron Ke Khiladi, a stunt-based show on Colors TV, have become financial anchors for their respective broadcasting networks, driving premium advertising revenue. Take leader Bigg Boss. Its most recent season 19 topped weekly charts, pushing fictional dramas to second place. It recorded a 2.2 TVR during its high-stakes finale week.
For its part, Khatron Ke Khiladi season 14 telecast in 2024 consistently ranked as the number one non-fiction show on television during its run, making frequent appearances in the overall top 10 list. It clocked TRPs between 1.5 and 1.9, attracting youth-centric consumer brands (automobiles, smartphones, and grooming) willing to loosen their purse strings for targeted demographic reach.
Net net, despite a 8-11% drop in linear TV ad revenue in recent years — with audiences migrating to connected TV and OTT apps thanks to better measurability and premium demographics — reality shows remain a valuable lever for channels to secure premium ad rates. Advertisers are willing accept a 8-10% rate hikes for these high-impact slots, point out media experts, because they guarantee mass viewing that daily soaps cannot match.
Says Vibhor Gauba, associate partner, KPMG India, “Non-fiction content is an important genre that can bring the entire household together for a family viewing experience. If you look at their audience participation, reality shows are a medium that can cuts across socio-economic classes.”
Playing it differently
Ashish Bhasin, founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group, & former CEO Asia Pacific, says since young viewership is led by OTTs and digital streaming platforms today, legacy television needs to work harder than ever. “To counter them they (Star Plus) will have to do something different,” he says.
Different it will be, says Star Plus. India Ke Top 1% will shift the spotlight away from rote learning, towards real-time thinking. A promo for the show circulating on Instagram showcases a high-pressure battle of logic, observation and mental agility.
That said, Star Plus last attempt at a similar format didn’t go down well with audiences. Sabse Smart Kaun hosted by Ravi Pandey ran three months in 2018 with 80 episodes and never returned on the small screen.
Star Plus’ Bose says the channel has spent a lot of time introspecting this time, identifying the white spaces in the category and understanding the audiences. “We wanted a format that was fresh, inclusive and engaging enough to bring families together around the television,” says Bose.
The show is an international adaptation of The 1% Club, which is running successfully in 14 international markets. The format is designed in a way that it does not require specialised knowledge; it needs observation and common sense. “This makes the show equally accessible to everyone,” adds Bose. It has also decided to stay out of the way of Sony’s flagship game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, which is aired Monday to Friday.