Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa sashays with 5.5 TVR

In its fourth season, the show witnessed its highest opening ever.

The fourth edition of Sony Entertainment Television's dance reality show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa has made its sassiest move ever.

The show, whose three earlier seasons opened with TVRs of 2.86 (2006), 3.09 (2007) and 2.05 (2009), has opened with 5.5 TVR in the current season. Consequently, the channel too has inched further ahead towards second-in-command, Colors (265 GRPs according to TAM data, C&S 4+, HSM) with 215 GRPs in its pocket.

According to Ajit Thakur, business head, Sony, the primary reasons that helped drive up the show's opening ratings were the overall mix of the participants; the jury -- comprising Bollywood actress and dance diva, Madhuri Dixit, as well as Remo D'souza and Malaika Arora Khan; and the look and feel of the content.

"This time, the show is being done on a much larger scale in terms of content and look, which has helped in getting the viewers hooked. Also, the innovation that we did with the grand premiere on Sunday to introduce the participants really helped in attracting such numbers," he says.

Pertinent to note here is that the grand premiere of the show on December 12, Sunday at 9 PM grabbed 4.1 TVR over two hours and 41 minutes; while the episodes on Monday and Tuesday (December 13 and 14) averaged at 5.4 TVR. Also, according to TAM, the three primetime episodes together contributed 52 GRPs to the overall channel grade.

Though not willing to divulge further details, Thakur also notes that the performance of the show has aroused advertiser interest; "while the sponsors' reactions have been good too."

Top media executives believe that while the show has surely witnessed a good opening; the challenge for Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa will be to maintain the momentum.

Shubha George, chief operating officer (South Asia), MEC, says, "The show was very heavily promoted during Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) too, which helped it earn such opening ratings. However, the format of the show is not new; neither does it hold a star power that matches up to Amitabh Bachchan. Therefore, the opening was an effect of the heavy promotions. The show can only sustain its numbers and grow if it witnesses good quality delivered by the contestants."

According to Mona Jain, VivaKi Exchange, chief operating officer, the show needs to do well, so as to maintain and increase Sony's GRPs, because the channel is driven more by reality than fiction.

"Reality helps in getting traction and it also makes a good platform to promote a channel's fiction properties. Jhalak, if it does well consistently, is also an effective buy for an advertiser, because it has a different audience set which adds on to the already existing KBC audience, thereby increasing the overall base," says Jain.

According to market sources, while the ad rates for Jhalak were approximately Rs 75,000 -78,000 per 10 seconds during the pre-launch phase; currently, the show is being sold at approximately Rs 1.25 lakh per 10 seconds.

Overall, while Jhalak did help Sony to increase its GRPs, some of its other fiction properties have also performed well for the week ended December 18.

While Crime Patrol (Fri-Sat, 11.30 PM) averaged 1.5 TVR (1.3 TVR in the previous week); CID (Fri-Sat 10 PM) is at 3.4 TVR (2.9 TVR in the previous week). Similarly, the grand finale of Comedy Circus Ka Jadoo (Fri-Sat 9 PM) rated 3.4 TVR in its second week (3.6 TVR in the previous week); while Adaalat (Sat 8 PM) got 2.7 TVR (1.6 TVR in the previous week).

Additionally, Saas Bina Sasural (Mon-Thur 10 PM) averaged 1.3 TVR (1.6 TVR in the previous week); and Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Nata Koi (Mon-Wed, 10.30 PM) averaged 0.4 TVR (0.5 TVR in the previous week).