Naagin remained on top till final episode

The finale of the 'consistently' most-watched show on the Hindi GEC garnered high ratings over the weekend of June 4 and 5

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | June 21, 2016

Continuing its race towards being the most successful show on the genre, Colors' most-hyped supernatural story Naagin gained as much as 16.8 million impressions in its finale week 23 of 2016 (U+R, 4+, HSM) of which 11.3 million impressions came from the urban markets.

The finite series weaving the Indian folklore concept of human-snake (ichhadari Naagin) that completed 62 episodes was launched by Colors on November 1, week 47 of 2015. Launched as a weekend primetime property, the show had garnered 16.7 million impressions in its debut week. After being the most-watched show consistently for these 29 weeks, the show got a viewership that could be compared to the biggest property on Indian television, IPL. The average of the 60 matches of IPL 9 stood between 8 and 24 million impressions. While the highest-rated match of the tourney gained 44.68 million impressions, the lowest numbers (7.2 million impressions) were clocked by Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders match.

By these standards, for a one-hour weekly property (two episodes of half hour each on Saturday and Sunday), Naagin has had an amazing 63-week journey. Apart from a few odds in week 13 – when it slipped to No. 3 as ICC T20 World Cup rose to number one and in week 17 when IPL hit it in the last three weeks -- the show maintained an average of 16.3 million impressions till week 17.

The channel has already announced season 2 of the show that will come in October. The interim time will be grabbed by the channel's new property Kawach, another show based on a supernatural storyline.

Raj Nayak

Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors is confident of the follower of Naagin. “We are extremely happy to see the success and this gives us more confidence in the season 2. We are also sure of Kawach. We are expecting viewers will give us the same love and affection for the second season.”

About building more weekend properties, Nayak said that the focus is rather on the seasonal format. “If we can get a few successful seasonal format shows on the weekday slots, it will be a game changer in the industry.”

History of the genre has showed that that many shows have stood on top for longer periods of time like Star Plus' Saath Nibhana Saathiya, Diya aur Baati Hum and even Yeh Rishta Kya kehlata hai. But these shows have enjoyed a legacy run of thousands of episodes. So, arguably, Naagin is the first and only finite series fiction property to have done wonders.

Star Plus' Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai continued its performance of first week. It garnered a record-breaking viewership of 19.57 million impressions in second week (week 48) in HSM (U+R), 4+ individuals market, replacing the No. 1 position of Star Plus' Saath Nibhana Saathiya. Since then, it remained the most watched show in Hindi GEC programming.

Other competitors launched shows during the weekend slot in the seven-month period of Naagin but it seems that they didn't manage to take away its position. Naagin stood up to reality shows such as So You Think You Can Dance (&TV), Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (Zee TV), The Kapil Sharma Show (TKSS) (Sony) or a fictional programme like Vishkanya (Zee TV).

Sony Entertainment television's TKSS was one of the most anticipated shows for the channel but it didn't manage to catch hold of Naagin's position. TKSS was on the top five programmes for about two weeks after which it failed to attract audience.

While all other shows came and went, Zee TV's Kumkum Bhagya and Star Plus' Ye Hai Mohabattein have consistently been in the top five programming.

(Data sourced from BARC India)

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