Weekend shows need to be spiced up

Why is weekend viewing so boring on the small screen? That's probably the only time that people like to catch up on the bulk of their TV watching. However, all one gets are either repeats of old shows or insipid new serials that nobody wants to watch. Yet another trend on either Saturday or Sunday evening is to show repeat telecasts of old awards functions replete with canned laughter that is most annoying. Now however, there are two music shows — Star Voice of India and Zee's S a Re Ga Ma that begin at 10 pm on Saturday night and continue till 11.30 pm. Unfortunately, as entertaining as these shows might be, most people do end up going out on a Saturday night and inevitably miss out on the same. Maybe that's why the channels including Sony which airs Indian Idol play a rerun of their shows all through Sunday — from mid-morning to late afternoon. And then it's time for a weekend afternoon movie, which is so bad that you'd rather catch up on your sleep than waste time watching old Bollywood flops. When these movies didn't do well when they were released, what is the point of thrusting the same on the already bored viewers? Or the channels choose to screen the same set of flicks every couple of weeks for the 8 pm slot. In fact, if one channel has shown Lage Raho Munnabhai, you can be sure that the same film will be aired on another channel one week later.

Movies like Munnabhai, Nayak, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, Terminator, The Mummy Returns should be banned on television for sometime. As fabulous as these films have been, you simply can't keep watching them over and over again. Funnily, every time one of these movies is aired, the channels promote it as 'exclusive viewing' weeks in advance. Currently there seems to be a retrospective of Raj Kapoor's movies every Sunday night on a channel. While this comes as a great treat to all the showman's fans — the movies are stretched across four-and-a-half hours thanks to the silly ads that keep creeping up every 10 minutes. Not only does one lose interest but you tend to switch off the TV and opt to sleep. Channels don't seem to understand that with Monday being a working day, no matter how great a flick, most working viewers will not stay up till 1 am just to watch their favourite film — so what is the purpose of stretching these movies endlessly?

What is urgently needed is a well-conceived blend of films, shows and serials that specifically target the weekend slot and ensure that there is a nice mix of entertainment catering to different age groups. Till that happens, weekend viewing will continue to bore the viewers.

http://www.deccan.com/TV%20Guide/TV%20GuideDescription.asp#P in%20up%20boys,%20poster%20girls%20wanted