News Broadcasting
‘Angels in America’, ‘Sopranos’ dominate Emmys
MUMBAI: It was a great night for HBO at the 56th edition of the Primetime Emmy Awards. Its gangster drama The Sopranos became the first cable show to win the Emmy for best drama series.
Meanwhile the landmark television miniseries Angels in America received 11 awards. This is the most ever won by a miniseries.
Al Pacino won the best actor award for ‘Angels In America’
For the broadcast networks Fox comedy – Arrested Developed surprisingly won in the comedy series category. Angels In America’s ‘A’ list cast of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeffrey Wright received awards. In addition, the writer Tony Kushner also bagged a trophy along with the director Mike Nichols.
At the ceremony Nichols said, “As you know the fight against Aids isn’t over yet. We must do what we can for Africa.”
Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo, who played a hard-luck mob couple in The Sopranos, whose relationship ended in betrayal were crowned supporting actor and actress at the Emmys.
Meanwhile NBC’s The West Wing won an award for Allison Janney. James Spader who stars in ABC’s The Practice also walked away with honours.
The satirical news show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, won an award for best variety series for the second year in a row. His writing staff also won an Emmy. In India, the show airs on CNN on Sundays.
Sarah Jessica Parker won best actress in comedy series for ‘Sex and the City’
In the comedy section, the four major comedy acting awards went for work in series that concluded their successful runs earlier this year in the US. Kelsey Grammer won his fourth Emmy for best actor in a comedy for Frasier and Sarah Jessica Parker won best actress in comedy series for Sex and the City. In India, the second season of Sex And the City is airing on HBO, whereas Frasier airs on Star World.
In the reality category, CBS’ The Amazing Race won best reality series for the second year in a row. In India, the show airs on AXN.
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.
