The line between pure programming and advertiser led programming gets fuzzier.

And it isn't the stray soap where an Airtel ringtone sounds every five minutes that's responsible. This week on Indian Idol, the participants were actually made to sing praises of the new Airtel messenger, which works oh-so-wonderfully on Sony Ericsson phones. Was the purple light that suffused the Indian Idol set also a way to reinforce the brand, one wonders.

To make matters more interesting, the programme producers dramatised the whole business, making the participants enact scenes which were clearly not spontaneous. It's probably taking reality talent hunts to a new level, but the result on screen is definitely far from appealing. To see aspiring musicians being made a party to advertisers' foibles just to be able to exhibit their talent on screen is sorry business. But that's the way the cookie crumbles, at least on Indian television.

And, if the participants sing product praises in between singing songs, they are also required to be subjected to rather unnecessary speculations of 'budding relationships' among themselves, abetted by even more unnecessary comments and counter comments by the judges.

Last week's 'clash' between Alisha Chinai and Anu Malik did nothing to raise the level of the show, when the two traded abuses over the Chang-Deepali supposed relationship, but it probably helped the show notch a few ratings more.

And if two gadgets made their way into a talent hunt, could a film be far behind? The ploy of getting stars as celeb judges on shows is getting passe. Star Cricket just got innovative when it played the Chak De India anthem throughout the ongoing series. The advertisers are getting creative. When will programming get equally original? Sigh!

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Dutt, naturally

News channels had no paucity of material the entire week. With Sanjay Dutt getting his six-year sentence, it was enough fodder to chew on, for the entire week. Spending time outside the Dutt residence, getting daughter Trishala on the phone from New York to getting pro-Dutt comments from the layman as well as sundry celebs - news channels fed off the issue for half a week. The weekend will probably be a Yeravada special, with reporters camped outside the jail gates, and the rest scattered among the Pune celebs, getting inane bytes on Dutt and his incarceration.

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A 'swapping' coincidence

Meanwhile, IBN 7 and Zee News got into a interesting coincidence, when both aired 'exclusive' features on wife swapping in the country's mini metros on Wednesday night. There was similar blurry footage of couples forging swapping deals in restaurants, similar audio clips of wives who willingly and sometimes grudgingly enter such deals and similar opinions voiced across both channels ('the trend of wife swapping is getting more common in the smaller cities than metros, as one would be led to believe).

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Comedy, no show

Sony's celeb comedy raises but a few laughs. While some of the participants like Kiran Karmarkar and Swapnil Joshi are undoubtedly good, the performance of others like Karishma Tanna and Urvashi Dholakia is loud, bordering on the lewd.

Stand up comics like Khayali, who emerged from Star One's Laughter Challenge last year, have found employment on this show, but the comedy quotient is vastly inferior. To make matters worse, judge Archana Puran Singh guffaws at the slightest provocation, although co-judges Satish Shah and Johny Lever try to tone down proceedings a bit.

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Couch potato tip - The revamped MTV is a treat to watch. And nearly each show on the channel is also plugging its revamped website. Talk about a 360 degree experience!