News Broadcasting
Fox’s ‘World Idol’ event set for holiday season
MUMBAI: Fox TV’s hit show Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller has announced a face-off among the winners of Pop Idol versions world over, to be called World Idol.
The competition will have idols including the winner of American Idol 2002 Kelly Clarkson battling it out in a two-part global television event beginning on Christmas Day and concluding on New Year’s Day, 2004. The World Idol competition will precisely bring together 11 Pop Idol winners from different nations.
To be taped in London, World Idol will feature Clarkson, Canadian Idol winner Ryan Malcolm, UK winner Will Young, Jordanian Diana Karzon, South Africa’s Heinz Winckler, the five national winners from European countries – Netherlands (Jamai Loman), Germany (Alexander Klaws), Poland (Alicja Janosz), Norway (Kurt Nilsen) and Belgium (Peter Evrard). Upcoming winner of Australian Idol will also participate in the competition.
A panel of 11 judges, one from each country, will give the contestants feedback on their performance, although no judges have been named yet. FremantleMedia and 19TV, the producers of Pop Idol , will produce World Idol as well.
Media reports from the US specify that after the show airs in a country, Fox phone lines will be open for 24 hours – but viewers will not be permitted to vote for their own country’s Idol winner. US voting will open at 10 pm on Christmas Day and carry over for 24 hours.
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.
