This is a very prominent comment we hear from GEC viewers these days- “After initial 4-5 months or 100 odd episodes, all GEC soaps start looking similar and boring”. Till now the producers were complacent and thought “all-is-well”, but not anymore..

Well one of the reasons why TV channels do not care about this is because they think once they build a fan-following for a show, the fans are going to remain loyal and drive the TRPs in anticipation of a fresh storyline (which seldom happens). So for past 4-5 years this trick has been working, but as show makers got smart, audience has become smarter. With more and more choices these days in so many genres and with smart TV guides, the audience is getting so many options to switch. And once they switch they realize that it’s not that hard, because when they try to get back to their favorite serial they find that the story has hardly moved ahead. This makes their decision of switching to a new program even stronger.

iDubba ran a survey on this and found very alarming results (100 people filled it in one day)-

• Have you recently switched from your favourite serial just because it’s content was boring and story was not moving ahead?

• If Yes (to above), how many serials you switched recently (please name some)?

• Top shows switched:

• Bade Achhe Laggte Hain
• Uttaran
• Balika Vadhu
• Hitler Didi
• MTV Roadies
• Parichay
• Taarak Mehta Ka Ultah Chashma

• Did you switch to a completely new Genre or tried something in Hindi GEC only?

Let us take the example of some TV shows and try to dig deep:

• Balika Vadhu (Colors)

Set in rural Rajasthan, ‘Balika Vadhu’ traces the arduous journey of child bride Anandi from the brink of childhood to womanhood. It recently completed 1000 episodes; which is outstanding! From day one till date, it has been maintaining its position in top 10 shows. The show started with a very fresh and a different storyline which made colors TV what it is today.

But let’s see what viewers think about the show these days:

• Do you watch Balika Vadhu even today?

• Do you think the track is still interesting?

• What do you like most about the show?

Results: People switching. Track is not interesting

• Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai (Star Plus)

It also completed 900 episodes which is outstanding! When it was launched, it had a simple story of a couple indulging into an arrange marriage and their life post marriage. The USP of the show was its ‘simplicity’ and ‘no negative’ character which turned out to be a new flavor for the show. And undoubtedly, the show has maintained its position in top 10 shows but now it just feels like been there done that.

Viewers’ POV:

• Do you watch “Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai” even today?

• Do you think the track is still interesting?

• What do you like most about the show?

Results: Not many people switching yet. But half of viewers think the story is now boring.

• Uttaran (Colors)

Uttaran on Colors TV is again a good example of a show which enjoyed its share of high ratings as well as low share of ratings. It has not been consistent! And now it’s totally going haywire! The show started on a high note with high ratings which touched 10.0. But over a period of time it started declining and how! Again, there has been a leap in the show, plus, out of the 3 lead actors, 2 left the show.

Viewers’ POV:

• Do you watch Uttaran even today?

• Do you think the track is still interesting?

• What do you like most about the show?

Results: People switching. Track is not interesting. Worst affected show.

• Saath Nibhana Saathiya (Star Plus)

The show is going on since 2 years and the story is moving even on a lesser speed than a turtle! Initially it enjoyed awesome ratings of 6-7, but now, it has decreased to 3-4.

Viewers’ POV:

• Do you watch Saath Nibhana Saathiya even today?

• Do you think the track is still interesting?

• What do you like most about the show?

Results: Sticky audience. Track is still acceptable.

Although people still watch some shows like Saas Bina Sasural (was in our survey) or Saath Nibhana.. but they do agree that story-line is now boring. Similar results were found for shows like “Bade Achhe Laggte Hain” (was in our survey) which people has recently started disliking because of leap in the story (same old formula).

Mrinal Jha of Undercover productions says that the time has gone when there used to be “sagas” i.e. stories with multiple characters with different trades, which viewers took time to understand and relate to. That way the stories could go on for years- original sagas include “Bold and Beautiful” and even “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu thi” which is considered as mother of Indian soaps. But as per Mrinal these days most of the stories lack depth and have just 2-3 main characters, which viewers easily get bored from.

But when we asked her why production houses still do not care, she replied- “It’s ok people are cribbing but there is less data to suggest that they are shifting (for lack of options on TV)”.

Our survey proved the hypothesis that users’ are not shifting for some shows yet, but they may start doing it soon as they do not like the track anymore.

Mrinal also talks about an interesting analogy- these days best TV shows are getting 3-5 as TRP ratings and average shows like “Bade Achhe Laggte Hain” is getting around 2-3 which means less than 1% of Indian population is watching it. Not very impressive, right?