MUMBAI: Seems like Colors‘ gamble to replace khiladi Akshay Kumar with hot-sassy girl Priyanka Chopra as host for its flagship reality show Khataron Ke Khiladi is paying the dividends.
The debut episode of Khataron Ke Khiladi x3 (KKKx3), launched on 6 September, has opened with a TVR of 5.5 in the Hindi speaking market, making it one of the biggest openings for any celeb-hosted reality show in the last two years.
Colors CEO and Viacom18 COO Rajesh Kamat said, "After two successful seasons of Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi, we are encouraged by the overwhelming viewer response to the third season. The exceptional show rating which is higher than the earlier two seasons indicates that the content and the format have been accepted well by viewers. We have taken the show to the next level in terms of scale, credibility and delivering value to our advertising partners."
Thus, riding on the back of this Priyanka Chopra-hosted show, the Viacom18 channel has added 47 GRPs (gross rating points) to its kitty, clocking 314 GRPs in the week ended 11 September, as per Tam data.
The ratings of the third season have also surpassed that of the first two, which had clocked the debut day ratings of 1.72 TVR and 4.37 TVR respectively. The third season has seen a 26 per cent jump over the previous season. The channel claims that overall reach has also gone up from 18.4 per cent last year to 19.2 per cent this year.
An elated Priyanka Chopra said, “I am absolutely delighted with the response that KKKx3 has received. What makes the news more exciting is the fact that the show has not only garnered a fabulous opening but has had a consistently high viewership over the whole week, which is very encouraging for me.”
Meanwhile, the average rating for the first week has also gone up from 4.11 TVR in season two to 4.36 TVR in season three.
“This is my maiden television foray and I am grateful for all the support I have received so far. It‘s been an absolute pleasure working with the team at Colors and Endemol and I hope that the audience continues to appreciate all the effort that we have put into KKKx3," Chopra added.
However, the HSM ratings are less than the HSM metro ratings for the same show. In the mid-week data, Tam reported that the 90-minute episode of KKKx3 clocked an average of 6.9 TVR (Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai). The Delhi viewers hooked on to the show the most notching 10.2 TVR, followed by Mumbai (5.5 TVR) and Kolkata (4.1 TVR).
The channel had backed the launch of the show with a major marketing push.
"The execution of the strategy is designed to take the ‘Khatra’ experience to the consumer across the entire spectrum of touch-points through a variety of media mix. We have planned these innovative campaign ideas that would create the desired impact to give the show a perfect launch pad," Colors director marketing Rajesh Iyer said.
