News Broadcasting
The Great Escape… Indianised
NEW DELHI: He is 45 years old. He has traveled to more than 50 countries. He loves to eat popcorn and misses his eight-year-old daughter. Meet William D Chalmers, founder of the Great Escape 2004, an annual travel-cum-adventure programme on television.
Chalmers was in Delhi last week with participants for the Great Escape 2004 competition – The Hunt for the Global Scavenger.
“The global scavenger hunt motto is `trusting strangers in strange lands’,” Chalmers says. His scavangers are placed at such tactical junctions that it is eminent for the team members to talk to the locals, make friends and enjoy the experience of even searching out the scavengers.
“It’s the challenge of a lifetime to see the world as very few people ever do and that too in 10 countries across four continents at one go. But at the same time, you’ll be helping raise a million dollars for some great international humanitarian organizations,” he says.
The Great Escape is one of the best real-life travel-adventure programmes on television. It explores the cultural legends and people and places and is the best place to have experiences. The annual event is meant to be a cultural immersion across 10 countries and four continents.
Independent-minded travelers take a quick lap around the globe, “learning about the world and their place in it.”
The first phase of the adventure involved countries like Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangkok and India. The travel competition is also a prime time programme for the National Geographic Channel.
With 12 teams in all and two members in each team (there’s no bar on a participant’s age), selection does not depend entirely on fitness. Rather, as Chalmers points out, it depends on a would-be participant’s travel experience and how enthusiastic one is to go out and explore.
The annual adventure lasts for three weeks (this year from 16 April to 9 May) and the first phase ended on 30 April in Delhi.
Making it unique is the precise way the hunt for the Global Scavenger goes. “The hunt is strictly for travelers and not for tourists. Its not a vacation, it’s an adventure,” says Chalmers.
The programme becomes interesting not only because of the fact that it is a reality show, but also because the teams go about unraveling the mysteries of Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan during their four-day stay in India.
While relaxing at the Maurya Sheraton hotel in Delhi, which played host to the Great Escape team last week, Chalmers expressed his appreciation at the way India was conducting its general elections and that too completely on electronic voting machines.
Taking a potshot at US politics, Chalmers opined that he hoped this time the Americans “get the right guys for elections in the US because the people are still suffering from the misdoings of hiring people from Florida (a reference to the unfair US polls when George Bush junior got elected President).
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to host Kolkata Town Hall on Hooghly River
‘Bhalobasa Bengal Inspiring Bharat’ event on April 20 brings cultural icons, trailblazing women and leaders aboard a cruise to celebrate Bengal’s enduring influence.
MUMBAI: Bengal is about to make fresh waves on the Hooghly and this time the current is pure conversation. CNN-News18 is taking its iconic Town Hall format to the waters of the iconic Hooghly River on 20 April 2026 with a special edition titled ‘Bhalobasa Bengal – Inspiring Bharat’. The floating event will celebrate the state’s rich cultural legacy and how its ideas, creativity and spirit continue to shape the rest of the country.
The unique riverside setting draws on Bengal’s history as a cradle of reform, art and intellectual thought. The speaker line-up mirrors that diversity: cultural heavyweights Mithun Chakraborty and Sreenanda Shankar will share the stage with trailblazing “Devis” such as Tanya Sanyal (India’s first woman firefighter in aviation), Ipsita Chakraborty (Kolkata’s first woman bartender) and Reshma Nilofer Visalakshi (Nari Shakti awardee and marine pilot). Music will flow through the celebrated pianist-vocalist duo Sourendro and Soumyojit, while public life and governance will be represented by Smriti Irani, Leander Paes, Saira Shah Halim, Keya Ghosh, Rekha Patra, Roopa Ganguly and Babul Supriyo.
CNN-News18, editorial affairs director, Rahul Shivshankar, said the event honours voices that carry Bengal’s legacy forward. Smriti Mehra, CEO – English & Business News, Network18, added that Bengal’s stories resonate far beyond its borders, especially as the state heads into polls.
From the first woman to battle flames in the skies to legendary actors who shaped Indian cinema, the gathering promises a rich mix of inspiration, courage and candid dialogue. In a city where culture has always flowed as freely as the river itself, CNN-News18 is turning the Hooghly into a floating forum for ideas that matter.
Tune in on 20 April on CNN-News18, CTV and YouTube to catch Bengal’s heartbeat in full flow.
