Kya 'Paanchvi Pass' has Failed?

Siddharth Basu of Syngery Adlabs admits that his much hyped Star Plus show Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain? has not been able to garner high TRPs. “We have failed to get a good sampling despite aggressive promotion. The opening rating was 4.7 which dipped further”, says Siddharth.

Pointing fingers at the ongoing IPL matches for eating away into the rating of this Shah Rukh Khan anchored thirty-six episode quiz show, Siddharth opines, “Nobody expected the IPL to be such a big hit, as club cricket has never been so successful”.

He adds on to say, “Besides IPL, some other factors may also be responsible for the low rating, which we need to study in detail”. However he was hopeful that once IPL gets over, the ratings will rise and June, July will be much more productive for the show.

Dismissing the never-ending comparisons of Paanchvi Pass with earlier seasons of KBC, Basu says, “That was a totally different era. Today the level of fragmentation is so huge that even the very popular IPL has not been able to cross the rating of 8.We need to understand that given the size of the audience pie, even limited ratings still mean large number of eye balls.”

On the big question of whether 'Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hain' has failed?, Basu replied that the public may not have liked the format. “Nobody likes to be humiliated”, adds in Basu.

He further did not subscribe to allegations that Khan's charm had failed to rein in the interest of the audience. “We all know how powerful he is; look what he has done to IPL”, came the spontaneous answer from Basu. So will King Khan return with the next season of KBC? “Well he has a contract of one season left with us. Now it’s up to the broadcaster to take the next step”, he ended.