Which way will television go?

Survivors, real-life court room dramas, hits in the west, are likely to be aped here

In other countries TV channels have combined big budget serials with innovative interactive shows. In the USA, for instance, series such as Friends, Seinfeld, X-Files, ER Sopranos, run alongside Millionaire and the phenomenally successful, just-concluded reality TV series, Survivors (in which contestants were left to fend for themselves on a remote island and may the best man or woman win). In Britain, newer and more refined versions of Who Wants to be a Millionaire have begun.

There is also Big Brother.com which turns viewers into voyeurs as they follow the lives of real people through a series of cameras fixed in their homes. Evidently, viewers are looking for more excitement, innovation, skills and thrills. So much so that in the USA, the cable TV channel, Court TV has introduced a show in which serial killers, rapists, murderers describe their crimes in fairly graphic (titillating?) detail.

There is every reason to think India television will become ‘real’ too. ‘‘Of course we are ready for reality TV,’’says Channel 9’s Kohli, ‘‘We have some plans, but we are watching very carefully what happens in the next six months.’’ Star’s Nair, concurs: ‘‘Reality TV yes, but it depends on how it gets done, how it is adapted to local tastes. We gambled with KBC. Here too, someone needs to gamble.’’

In the world of the Internet, it is instant gratification and push button responses. Already films are offered on the Net in which you choose your version of events. It could happen to TV too. Presumably, if you want Pooja to marry Ravi (Kora Kagaz) you could choose one storyline and if you want Ravi to marry Neha you would pursue another one. Digitalisation and fibre-optics will allow television to be finally cut to suit each persons preferences. Is that what we want from TV? What will happen to the couch potato whose fingers ran out simply changing channels in search of something to watch?
— S.B.

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