SRK creates new record with 23.3 million

TV's biggest game show with Shah Rukh Khan as anchor has opened with a bang and delivered cracking eyeballs. According to TAM data, the first episode of KBC 3 on January 22 opened with TVR of 12.3 and reached 23.3 million people which is five million more than Amitabh Bachchan's KBC 2 which had opened with 19.75 TVRs and reached 18 million viewers. What's more, on the following three days KBC built up on its opening performance and delivered a record 39 million viewers on Thursday, the concluding day of the show's opening week.

"These are historic numbers," says Star India's Vice-president Ajay Vidyasagar. "In the history of satellite television in India no show has delivered such eyeballs and achieved such widespread reach in the first week." Contrary to reports in a section of the media, KBC 3 is a much bigger success and apart from the content, the Shah Rukh Khan factor has clearly swayed the mass audience in its favour, despite the CAS effect in parts of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata where 30 per cent of affected homes have not been able to switch on to the show in the absence of set top boxes.

"Of course SRK effect is showing clear signs of picking up further in the coming weeks. People are beginning to love him for his warm, breezy, funny and tongue-in-cheek humour and style of anchoring," says Vidyasagar.