MUMBAI: Indian TV audience is like the spectators who took part in deciding the fate of a gladiator who lost a duel in the infamous Roman games encouraged by many a Ceaser. Thumbs down meant death; thumbs up meant the vanquished could live on – to entertain them another day.  

BARC’s weekly viewership monitoring of Indian TV viewing habits gives us the insight into what judgments the audience delivered for the Indian TV shows.

Let’s  take a peek at the shows  that India’s viewers lapped up, giving them handsome growth numbers (in excess of 1.5  times)  in week 7 of BARC’s report.  The data has been provided by the ratings agency.

The top-most ranker was Star Plus' Dil Bole Oberoi, the launch episode of which on Monday at 10:30 am garnered 6228 impressions (in 000s)  as against the average for the previous four weeks of 1,228 impressions for P.O.W – Bandi Yuddh Ke. The new TV soap runs six days a week, and is a sequel of the earlier successful TV show Ishqbaaz.

The viewership for the 10:30 slot rose 5.1 times, clearly indicating that the Indian audience is continuing its romance with soaps and soppy family fare, rather than high class, well-written limited series. P.O.W – Bandi Yuddh Ke  (an adaptation of Israeli format Hatufim, Khatufim did brilliantly well in Israel and even in its US adaptation as Homeland) had very high production values and appealed to the watchers of serious television. But, its ratings were nothing to write home about.

The WWE Elimination Chamber leapt 2.4 times, with 3,742 impressions (in 000s) in week 7 on Monday between 6 pm and 9:24 pm on Ten 1 SD+HD. The average for the previous four weeks was 1,556 impressions. The Smackdown brand-exclusive event "Elimination Chamber" had some major wrestling stars battling it out for the winners podium. The Kickoff match was between Mojo Rawley and Curt Hawkins which saw the former getting through. The second bout was between Apollo Crews & Kalisto vs. Dolph Ziggler (2-on-1 Handicap Match) which, as per expectation, was won by the former team. The Elimination Chamber matches featured: Baron Corbin, Dean Ambrose, John Cena (c), AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, & The Miz (for the WWE Championship).

The Telugu film Businessman 2 which premiered on Zee Cinema on Friday 17 February between 19:59 and 23:02 dubbed in Hinid saw its viewership swell by 2.2 times with 4,496 impressions (as against 2,072 impressions for the previous four week average.) The action drama starring Ram Pothineni, Sonal Chouhan and Rakul Preet Singh. Business tycoon Ram aka Karthik based in Portugal heads to India to solve a case registered by Rakul (Divya). While in India, he tries to get her to withdraw the case, falls in love with her, despite being engaged to Sonal. and also reunites his family business. The Gopichand Malineni directed film obviously lured the audience.

The fourth top chart breaker during week 7 was the 19th Vivo Asianet Film Awards which aired on Asianet on Saturday and Sunday from 7 pm to 10:45 and from 18:59 to 10:42 respectively. The increase was 1.4 times to 5,945 impressions (4,139 impressions previous four weeks average) and twice to 5033 impressions (2,461 impressions).

The fifth noteworthy performer was Life OK’s launch episode of "Har Mard Ka Dard" between 8 and 8:30 pm on Tuesday which saw the slot’s viewership shoot up by 1.7 times  to 2,080 impressions (as against 1,260 impressions in the previous four weeks).

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