Bengaluru: The Kannada version of Bigg Boss produced by Endemol which is being aired on Star India’s Suvarna has dropped further giving no sign of hope for recovery as the channels average TVR has dropped further from 4.7 in week 35 to 3.9 in week 36.
Market sources state that “despite the show generating an average of 753 million viewers on “Suvarna” in season 2 against the 604 million viewers for 1st Season of the show on “ETV Kannada”, the difference, when compared technically in terms of channel popularity of ETV Kannada and Suvarna the increase of 20% viewership is considered as very meagre, because ETV Kannad was an underdog at the time of the launch of Bigg Boss season 1 with no big ticket programs topping the charts and the show played a major role in boosting the overall performance of the channel.
Whereas, Suvarna was the market leader in Kannada GEC market at the time of launch of Bigg Boss season 2 and the show should have clocked at least a 100% growth to guide the channel to strengthen its numero uno position instead of the existing no.2 spot, to call itself a successful season.
Moreover, the performance has created a question mark on cost viability due to the kind of the monies being spent on acquiring the international format, production, Marketing, Above all the cost of Actor Sudeep etc…
In totality Kannada audience had given a big thumps down for Bigg Boss 2 as the show was declared unfit for family watching. This show format which used to attracts the youngstera the most failed to attract youth audience owing to the perception that the controversies inside the Bigg Boss house are planted purposefully.
The recent change in strategy of next season of Bigg Boss on Colors with a “Parivarik” approach might be based on the growing criticism and dropping viewership of the format in regional markets like Kannada.