The 'Magical' Kapil Sharma Show

When everyone thought it was all over, Sony Entertainment Television bet on Kapil Sharma and launched his new show and it is doing wonders for the channel. BARC India's figures say the show has increased its viewership numbers gradually from an average of 6.499 million Impressions in weeks 17-24 to 8.875 million Impressions in weeks 49-4 (week 4 of 2017)

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | February 9, 2017

Kapil Sharma, the comedian actor who is said to have a Midas touch and some great content, has garnered viewership for the channels by hosting his shows. Comedy Nights With Kapil (CNWK) did wonders on Colors and got the whole country talking about the show.

When everyone thought that all content had been juiced out, Sony Entertainment Television bet on him and launched 'The Kapil Sharma Show' (TKSS). The show was launched during the Indian Premier League and was still the most watched non-fiction properties on the Hindi GECs on the weekend of April, 23 and 24 against the premier of Bajirao Mastani (Colors) and So You Think You Can Dance (&TV). An extensive marketing campaign delivered a viewership of 8.9 million Impressions in the debut week (week 16 of 2016).

The show has increased its viewership numbers gradually from an average of 6.499 million Impressions in weeks 17-24 (an eight week average) to an average of 7.208 million Impressions in weeks 25-32. It grew further to an average of 8.851 million Impressions in weeks 33-40, moving on to an average of 8.569 million Impressions in weeks 41-48. The recent figures are at an average of 8.875 million Impressions in weeks 49-4 (week 4 of 2017).

While popular perception says that a show like TKSS is watched more by the male audiences, the female audience is not far behind if one looks at the data released by BARC India. So in the most recent data of the eight week average from week 49-4 (of 2017), the male audience got 4.849 million Impressions, while the female audience contributed 4.025 million Impressions.

Ashish Golwalkar

Ashish Golwalkar, Senior Creative Director, Sony Entertainment Television and also the head of non-fiction on the channel, said, “The show is doing very well and I see no reason why it should not. We have always believed in the show. It is just a perception that the male audiences watch more of Kapil Sharma, while it is more of a family show. Since it is humour sans vulgarity, it attracts a lot of co-viewing by the families. Even the celebrities who come on the show are both male and female celebs. This is a great strength for us. We are proud that there is no objectionable content in the show. We even don't pick up on the religious or other controversial matters. Whenever there are funny anecdotes, they are mostly on the family members (Kapil Sharma's onscreen family). I will give this to the makers and writers of the show.”

In addition to the numbers, the show has also witnessed an increase in the average time spent per viewer from 24.35 minutes per viewer (average of week 41-48) to 30.29 minutes per viewer (average of week 49-4). This shows how people are gradually spending more time on the show.

The channel's extensive marketing campaign during the launch included live events by the actor comedian and lead of the show Kapil Sharma. The show has so far been successful for the channel, but are there plans to boost it further?

Golwalkar feels that at the moment, there's no need. “The show is doing really well for us and we haven't found a need to tweak it in any manner. Why mend it if it ain't broke? We did give the show that extra marketing push through the on-ground events and if need be, we will do that again sporadically, but right now, we haven't felt the need.”

Sony Entertainment Television was struggling with the line-up before TKSS was launched. The show was the first one to come in to strengthen the weekend prime time line-up, after which Super Dancer was launched preceding TKSS at 8pm and both shows put together did wonders for Sony. The channel has taken pride in mentioning how they are the No. 1 GEC for weekend primetime.

After Super Dancer, the channel launched Indian Idol on the 8pm weekend slot. But is there certain kind of over dependence on the Kapil Sharma Show? After all, the channel has recently renewed the actor's contract for another year, to end in December 2017 for somewhere between Rs 90-110 crore. The show was initially launched for 26 episodes.

Golwalkar humbly responds, “If you are asking about the 9-10.30 pm weekend slot, yes, it is an important show for us and we are dependent on it for that time band. But our weekend is otherwise also very strong with Indian Idol at 8pm and then CID and Crime Patrol, after TKSS.”

Who will not want to put their money where the eyeballs are? While the show had Lava mobiles as the first sponsor, the show now rides on a lot of brands. The ad rates too increased by almost 200 per cent.

A source close to the show, on condition of anonymity said, “It is a profitable property for Sony and the advertisers too have been free from their apprehensions. There was a lot of smoke of doubtfulness around the show when it was about to launch, but now, the channel is getting amazing response from the sales team too.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com