Time for all soaps to revisit their fundamentals. Otherwise they will be swamped by reality TV. And when we say reality TV we mean the news as well as staged reality shows. Notice that The Great Laughter Challenge Show is the highest-rated show on Star One, a channel that otherwise boasts of youthful, vigorous soap operas. See how the talent contest Sa Re Ga Ma Pa managed to send Zee up to number two in the popularity charts. Serials such as Saat Phere and Kasamh Se have lathered well but it was Sa Re Ga... that supplied the soap gel. Conversely, Sony and Sahara One that don’t air a happening reality show have dropped down the order. No wonder Sony is soon to introduce Dancing with the Stars, a new reality show.

Above all, everyone should look at the rise and rise and rise of the Hindi news channels. No matter how much people like us bemoan the falling standards in what passes for news, the channels continue to surge forward. The little Prince saga, had more than 10 million viewers and gave the Hindi news channels their best outing. Perhaps ever. This is the power and the allure, inexplicable to many of us, of reality on TV. People don’t seem to want pure fiction or facts. They want reality in the garb of a soap opera or better still a Bollywood masala.

The melodrama surrounding Prince’s rescue and the nation’s vigil was far more riveting than the two gentlemen from Rajasthan, Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Natwar Singh. Now, if only the latter was Mr Natwarlal, you’d have more takers for that kind of news.

... contd.