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SDCK failed to sustain the viewer's interest in the show from the very beginning.
Also, its anchors could not match the charisma and screen presence of Amitabh
Bachchan. SDCK was aired on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30
p.m. putting it in direct competition with KBC, which was aired on all weekdays,
except on Friday10, between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Media analysts commented that
SDCK had failed to capture the imagination of the audience. The me-too image of
the show was seen as a major hindrance to its popularity.
SDCK sets looked similar to KBC's with the same seating arrangement and similar
blue lighting. But there were undefined arches under which the contestants seemed
to disappear. Even the audience section was badly lit. On the program content front,
SDCK's elimination rounds were confusing - making things long and dull for the
viewers. The language of the questions seemed to be complicated to the viewers. It
seemed as if even simple questions were complicated, and this seemed to create
confusion in the minds of the audience.
The Zee Defensive - SDCK Contd...
Instead of the 'three lifelines' of KBC, SDCK had three trumps; instead of 'lock kiya
jaye,' it was 'freeze kiya jaye.'11 There seemed to be no spontaneity in the show as
the anchors failed to strike a comfortable relationship with the participants. Lack of
a healthy working relationship between the two anchors also marred the show.
Some analysts felt that the presence of two anchors created confusion. Viewers
seemed to be irritated when both anchors spoke at the same time.
Gajendra Singh, Director, SDCK commented, "They had massive ego clashes and I
think it showed on screen." The anchors failed to win over the audience, whereas
KBC's anchor, with his immense popularity, had completely won over the viewers.
There was an also lot of audience interaction in KBC, which seemed to be missing
in SDCK. Before launching KBC, Star Plus had spent months preparing Amitabh
Bachchan for the show. However, according to Anupam Kher, they could not
rehearse for even three weeks before the shooting of the show commenced.
Meanwhile, KBC gave SDCK a tough time by airing 'special' shows with Bollywood
celebrities on the occasion of Diwali and New Year. Considering the show's
miserable TRP ratings, and the fact that it was drawing flak from all quarters, Zee
TV announced the termination of its contracts with both Anupam Kher and
Manisha Koirala after 26 shows were aired. It said it was doing this because the
poor working relationship between the two had affected the show badly. The
channel also announced that it was discontinuing the present format of SDCK.
It said it planned to re-launch the show with new anchors after re-conceptualising
and re-formatting it. Media reports indicated that Zee TV had actually worked out on
an altogether new format12 with a mega-appeal interface between anchor and the
contestant. However, the rising popularity of another game show, this time on Sony,
named 'Jeeto Chappar Phad Ke,' (JCPK)13 forced Zee to scrap SDCK permanently.
Reality Bites
In January 2001, all the Star channels were blocked for two weeks by cable
operators getting their feed from Siticable, cable network. Media reports indicated
that SDCK's failure had prompted Zee to use its arm Siticable, to harm KBC's TRPs
by preventing it from reaching viewers. (Another view was that Star, riding high on
the success of KBC, demanded higher payment for relaying its channels and
stopped feeding them to operators, mainly Siticable, who refused to oblige.) Though
Star's viewership did suffer as Siticable commanded 17% of the cable business, it
stood its ground, forcing Zee to make peace.
Following this, Siticable officials had a meeting with Star officials and reached an
agreement to restore Star channels. Having finally accepted the fact that SDCK was
a bad dream to be forgotten, Zee seemed to be moving on. The channel announced
plans to launch a totally new concept in Indian television with the first homegrown
reality television show,14 'Prisoner of War' (PoW). PoW was based on reality shows
like Survivor, which were being aired in Hindi and English by AXN channel. POW was
supposed to test the endurance and ingenuity of nine contestants, and was to be
shot entirely on location at a specially constructed, huge set at the Subhash
Chandra owned EsselWorld in Mumbai.
Sinha, Vice President (Marketing), Zee TV remarked, "Reality TV show has already
proved its credentials in the West, becoming the most popular genre of television
ever. We are today presenting the future of Indian television." Zee TV planned to
launch PoW in the near future. With KBC still going strong on the TRPs front, it
remained to be seen whether PoW would succeed in dethroning KBC from the
number one slot.