It so happened that I was seeing a few repeats of The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony and as I reached out for my second helping of chicken, my wife happened to change the channel.
And lo! I came across an old episode of Comedy Nights With Kapil Sharma on Colors! I blinked, quickly finished my lunch and sat down to do some researching with a colleague.
Why was Colors repeating old episodes of Comedy Nights With Kapil Sharma? Nobody has forgotten the acrimonious split that Kapil had with Colors, have you?
No doubt Colors has full right to telecast the repeats as and when they want--- after all, it's their property--- but why on a Sunday afternoon and that too at the same time when Sony was conducting a similar exercise?
Next I called up my friend in Colors and he told me that they had been airing Comedy Nights With Kapil since quite some time. But my research colleague tells me that it's not true. Whatever, maybe my friend has to protect his employer.
And then I called up my top source from the TV industry who spilled the beans and said: "Colors decided to run the Kapil Sharma repeats on Sunday simply to take away the eyeballs from Star Plus, which has been beating it black and blue since the past four weeks continuously."
And here is the proof:
Colors has been butchered by its arch-rival Star Plus in its past few weeks on Sunday--- a day which is considered very good commercially in the television medium.
Week 25: Colors beat Star Plus by 1.7 GRPs.
Week 26: Colors beat Star Plus by 0.5 GRPs.
Week 27: Colors beat Star Plus by 2.8 GRPs.
Week 28: Colors beat Star Plus by 0.2 GRPs.
Week 29: Star Plus beat Colors by 1.6 GRPs.
Week 30: Star Plus beat Colors by 6.7 GRPs.
Week 31: Star Plus beat Colors by 3.1 GRPs.
Week 32: Star Plus beat Colors by 2.4 GRPs.
So what has Star Plus been telecasting in the last four weeks? Repeat telecasts of Saath Nibhaana Saathiya, Diya Aur Baati Hum, Jaana Na Dil Se Door and Humko Tumse Ho Gaya Hai Pyaar Kya Karein.
Added the top source, "Kapil's show has become the No.1 show on Sony, Colors is definitely not happy about this. They want to take away some share from Sony too, which can be done on Sundays only. They can't tamper their programming on weekdays when there's a slot crunch."
PS: This Sunday, Star Plus telecast repeat episodes of Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon?, Ishqbaaaz and Mahabharat. If Colors manages to beat Star Plus this week, you know whom they have to thank!
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