With over 5.7 million viewers glued to the idiot box last Saturday, watching a rustic dhaba owner from Saharanpur Ashutosh Kaushik win the title and Rs 1 crore, the final episode of Bigg Boss-2 on Colors has become the most-watched TV show in the entertainment and reality show genre this year.
It has also helped Colors (a joint venture between Viacom and Television Eighteen), the broadcaster of Shilpa Shetty-anchored Bigg Boss-2, emerge as the number-one channel. Colors' performance was partly helped by the fact that the strike by television workers forced competing channels to air only re-runs of their programmes.
According to data from online ratings agency aMap, the final episode of Bigg Boss-2 generated the highest television ratings of 2.7 per cent for the reality show, which is based on an international format Big Brother.
In terms of viewership, only the final match of the Indian Premier League in June this year remained the most-watched television show, attracting over 12 million viewers, according to aMap.
On November 22, the final Bigg Boss-2 episode beat other tough contenders in terms of viewership. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009 on Zee TV (4.3 million viewers) and Comedy Circus on Sony TV (3.5 million viewers) generated much lower viewership than the Colors reality show, said aMap.
Overall, Colors generated a gross rating point of 28 and emerged the number-one entertainment channel while Zee TV and Star Plus fell far behind.