Colors attempts to attract new eyeballs with Sunday afternoon slot

All is Well, on the lines of the American show Dr Oz, will talk about different diseases, their symptoms and a healthy lifestyle.

Viacom18's general entertainment channel Colors has launched a health and wellness show that aims to tap the family audiences on the Sunday afternoon slot. The new show, christened 'All is Well', is based on the American show Dr Oz. It will talk about the symptoms and remedies of common diseases, first aid tips and easier ways of prevention. It will also provide tips for healthy shopping to women.

The channel recently launched Ring ka King, a reality show based on wrestling. Even with cricketer Harbhajan Singh as its host, the show did not perform very well.

In the initial phase, All is Well, hosted by Dr Sonu Ahluwalia, orthopaedic surgeon from the US, will run for 20 episodes. It will be divided into different segments, including question and answer sessions, and sharing the experiences of patients. Celebrities on the show will talk about the diseases that they have gone through and how they dealt with the situation.

While admitting that the Indian audiences may not be very open to talking about their health problems, Dr Ahluwalia explains, "The show is not completely about asking the uncomfortable questions. It has different segments and one of the interactive segments deals with the questions. Secondly, our aim is to spread awareness about the different unusual health problems. For example, if there are 100 people suffering from similar symptoms, which they are unable to talk about, one person talking on the TV about those will help the remaining 99 to understand the problem."

When asked if celebrities would be brought on the show very regularly to attract viewers, Ahluwalia adds, "The only celebrities on the show will be the ones who wish to share their personal experiences with the audience, their personal health issues and the precautions that must be taken. To name a few, we have the Roshan family on the show, talking about Suzzane's cervical cancer and how the family dealt with the hardship. Also, Sania Mirza will talk about the injuries she suffered and the precautions that should be taken. We have aimed to make the otherwise heavy health talks to be dealt in a lighter way, including puzzles, quizzes, work-outs and dance on the show."

In an official communiqué, Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, says, "We are looking forward to explore wellness as an edutainment concept. It takes the Sundays 12 noon slot, a time when the entire family gets together, thereby building our weekend viewing."

Apart from the new format and concept, the unusual time slot has also attracted attention. While there were critical comments about the Sunday morning scheduling of Aamir Khan's Satyameva Jayate (Star Plus), the channels, at the same time, apparently plan to try the same pattern.

afaqs! approached industry experts for their view of this novel strategy adopted by Colors.

Karthik Lakshminarayan, COO, Crest - Madison Media, says, "The concept is fair enough. I think the audience will like it and they will be interested in this new kind of show. There have been different types of shows like Sach Ka Saamna and the audience has given them a fair chance, too."

Speaking on advertisers, Lakshminarayan adds, "I am sure there will be some market for this - health brands may want to associate with it. The rest will depend completely on the ratings that the show manages to draw."

However, Amit Ray, media consultant and ex-president, Lintas Media Group has a different opinion. He believes that it is not necessary that everything served on the platter would be welcomed by the audience. He says, "It's not about the new show or the new concept. Some people may like the show, though it can't be said at this stage whether the numbers would be significantly large. A segment of people would want to know about it. Some would watch the show for the knowledge related to remedies and preventions."

Ray explains that even the over-hyped IPL has lost its viewers after a course of time. This is mainly because of the fragmented audience and the content shown on the channels. He says that the channels keep experimenting with newer things until they get a successful concept to work on, and this attempt by Colors may turn out to be such an effort.

Ray further adds, "Just because a concept has never been on Indian TV before, it will not equalise to success. Similarly, an older concept may not lead to failure. The best example of this is the movie Singham, which, although a much-repeated concept, still clicked."