News Broadcasting
Zee English to air three new shows in December
MUMBAI: Zee English’s year end bonanza includes three new shows. With rival English entertainment channel Star World seriously bolstering its programming line up, Zee’s English entertainment arm’s announcement of new shows comes at a good time.
Starting 8 December every Monday, is Larry David’s satire Curb your Enthusiasm. Next in line is new comedy series Half and Half, which is scheduled to air every Thursday at 10:30 pm starting 11 December.
While the fifth season of HBO’s Sopranos will hit the US small screens on March 2004, Zee English will premiere season three of mobster soap Sopranos on 14 December, which will are every Sunday at 9 pm.
A brand new comedy series that premiered last year in USA, Half & Half, stars Essence Atkins and Rachel True as half-sisters Mona and Dee Dee who have only one thing in common: their father. Created by Jeffrey Klarik and produced by Yvette Lee Bowser, the show has been nominated for several awards including the golden globe and Emmy awards.
Mona is a budding music executive raised by her single mother, Phyllis, to be an independent woman who does things in her own free-spirited and sometimes sardonic style. In usual sitcom style, younger sister Dee Dee is a privileged honour-roll college student who grew up in a two-parent home, but searches for her own identity out of the shadow of her overbearing mother, Big Dee Dee.
Growing up separately, these two virtual strangers suddenly become neighbours in the same San Francisco apartment building and experience the challenges of sisterhood for the first time. They often clash on everything from morals to money to men. Meanwhile, Spencer, Mona’s best friend, becomes the conscience of the group and helps build a bridge between the women.
The candid, unsparing and self-deprecating Curb Your Enthusiasm brings the off-kilter comic vision of Larry David- the co-creator and co-producer of yet another Zee English alumnus Seinfeld. Winner of Golden Globe for best TV series, this HBO show ranked seven in the entertainment weekly’s list of top ten TV shows.
The series blurs the lines between reality and fiction, as David (playing himself) and a cast of real and fictional characters are followed around Los Angeles by a ubiquitous camera that chronicles the private, often banal world of a relatively public man.
It features footage of writer Larry David at home, at work and around town, as he gets into predicaments with fictional and real-life personalities. The show shot without a script, also stars Jeff Garlin as manager Jeff Greene and Cheryl Hines as wife Cheryl. The cast is given scene outlines and often improvise lines as they go.
Stylish, shocking and dark humorous series, Sopranos takes a fresh new look at organised crime from the psychiatrist’s couch. Starring James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli, the series is about a New Jersey gangster and family man Tony Soprano and his gang who reluctantly seek the professional services of a smart and sophisticated therapist.
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.
