News Broadcasting
CNN looks to achieve wicked perfection with reality show
MUMBAI: In the past US broadcaster CBS has enjoyed success with reality shows like The Amazing Race. Now the Viacom owned broadcaster has announced a fresh slate of reality programming for next year.
One new show that will premiere in January 2005 is Wickedly Perfect. Hosted by journalist Joan Lunden, the show pits 12 people with a creative knack for the finer things in life in a no-holds-barred competition to crown the country’s new authority on at-home living.
These perfection-obsessed contestants, whose motto is “anything you can do, I can do better,” will compete in different areas of beautifying the home and entertaining, including party planning, gardening, cooking, baking, sewing, crafts, floral arranging and decorating.
In addition to chronicling the sometimes funny, sometimes factious relationships that develop among the tightly wound, extremely competitive participants, each week a contestant will be eliminated from their luxurious estate located in New England.
Another reality show that will premiere in January is The Will. A wealthy patriarch will put a large portion of his estate up for grabs as 10 potential heirs, both family and friends, compete against each other in both physical and mental challenges in an effort to win rewards and stave off elimination.
As each potential heir fights to stay in the game, they’ll also need to stay in the patriarch’s good graces in order to survive.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
