News Broadcasting
‘Election Ooh La La’ on Aaj Tak with Shekhar Suman
MUMBAI: The prime time on one of India’s leading Hindi news channels is set to witness an outburst of giggles starting from April Fool’s day. Aaj Tak brings comic actor Shekhar Suman on its new election show Election Ooh La La from today at 9:30 pm.
The 30 episode series will be aired from Monday to Saturday and will be a humorous take on elections. With quite a few episodes already in the bag, the final ones will be shot closer to the telecast date of those episodes, to ensure topicality of issues.
The show has been outsourced to a production house and a multi camera set up is being used that will have Suman sketching many politicians, party symbols, presenting a unique take on mudslinging as well as connect the day’s big political story with the reality of India. This apart, he will also hold celebrity interviews.
Aaj Tak managing editor Supriya Prasad said, “It is important to keep innovating and what better time to bring political satire than an action packed elections. The space has been vacant and we believe Shekhar Suman will bring an all new energy in the prime time with this show. “
On air promotions for the show have already begun on the TV Today network channels. Apart from this, the channel is also going big on print, online and outdoor campaigns. To promote the new show.
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: 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.
