Lucky us. Jjhalak Dikkhla Jaa wound up last week, and the curtains will fall on Nach Baliye this weekend. Even Filmy's Bathroom Singer will roll to a raucous end this week, complete with a guest appearance by Pakistan's wild child cricketer Shoaib Akhtar (no connection to music, but when has that stopped anyone?).

That will not only spell curtains till the next season for the clutch of cacophonous talent hunts on mainstream channels, it will also mean that news channels will have to hunt for fresh fodder to spice up their entertainment sections. A greater part of this week was spent in profiling and detailing the Nach Baliye finalists Aamir Ali - Sanjeeda and Rakhi Sawant - Abhishek on news channels, as they toured different cities to garner audience votes.

Prachi Desai, the upcoming star of Indian soapdom, walked away with the Jjhalak... honours last week. The nondescript Jay Bhanushali was no match for her and Sandhya Mridul clearly lost out on the 'cute' factor. In a replay of last year's finals, glamour and the 'saleability' factor ensured that the petite Prachi scored over the talented Sandhya, just as Mona Singh (the Sony channel ambassador) scored over Shweta Salve, who was more gifted as a dancer.

Oh, but the saleability of music as a theme refuses to fade. Jjhalak is being replaced by another music based show, K for Kishore. The only interesting aspect of the new show is that the judges and the in studio audience will judge the talent, instead of SMS votes.

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MTV has been having a 'Bombay' theme this week in its evening slots. On Thursday, it also telecast the MTV Lycra awards, a ceremony that was far more enjoyable than the scores of similar awards that are played out on the tube. Even though the theme remained Bollywood, and Om Shanti Om was plugged relentlessly throughout, the distinct MTV presentation made it possible to sit through the entire event.

Sab continues to innovate, even though its audience base may be negligible. Sirf Stories, its latest slot, has brought back the episodice stories to television. In an age when the long running soap dominates, its interesting to mop up stories in small packages and move on to the next one. The Sirf Story this week (wife and ex lover get together to murder husband, frame an unsuspecting mentally deranged patient) had a predictable ring to it, but the performances were competent. So, the upside is that you can still put the story behind you and hope for a racier one next week!

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Couch potato's grumble of the week - Star's Marathi offering Maaza, couldn't get over the excitement of having procured some shoddily shot footage of the Abhi-Ash wedding. They ran the film for hours along with gushing commentary. Ugh.