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Channels bet big on kids Even audience
will also have a say in these contests in form of text messaging to
voice their opinion. “India is a multi-talented country and we
believe that talent is not just about singing and dancing,” says
Monica Tata, Vice-President, Turner International India, which owns
POGO. The Amazing Kid Award will be given in eight categories. Some of
these include arts, sports, music, singing, dance and genius. The
channels say they want the fun element to be the focus of these shows
and not the competition that comes with it. “On Nat Geo Junior Hunt,
the focus is not on the winner alone, we are very conscious of this
fact,” says Rajesh Sheshadri, vice-president, National Geographic
Channel India. Like other talent hunt shows on the telly, these too will
be telecast, and audience would go through the same old motions — SMS,
nail-biting tension, suspense about the winner and so on, but there will
be no high-voltage drama that one witnesses on the usual talent
shows. Although the channels are not offering prize money, but they
want to make the winner’s future secure. POGO’s winners will get a
child benefit policy worth Rs 8 lakh and a chance to be on the channel
for a year. On the other hand, Nat Geo Junior will get a chance to host
shows on the channel for three months plus a corpus fund of Rs 5 lakh
for future education. The channels have impressive figures on the
number of kids they hope to attract. While Amazing Kid hopes to attract
nearly 15 lakh kids across the country, Junior Hunt will span across 10
cities with around 380 schools and around four lakh kids between 10 and
14 participating at various levels. While viewer votes will matter, it
is the juries that will ultimately decide on the winners. The channels
believe that this will decrease the pressure on the kids. “We want to
celebrate talent and our show is not an elimination contest, we have
structured the show in such a way that no kid will feel left out,”
says Tata. Channels do not agree that they are jumping on the talent
hunt bandwagon after its popularity on various entertainment channels.
“Each channel has a distinct identity and if kids fit into a context
of a channel and its philosophy, and if we can exploit this part of it,
why not?” says Sheshadri. “We started the Amazing kids three years
back, but seeing its popularity we only enhanced the offering this
year,” says Tata. While higher revenues, TRPs and better brand
presence could be the motive of the television channels for promoting
talent shows, but for kids, they could have fun all the way and also win
something on the way. — PTI
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With television
channels going whole hog on talent hunt shows to find ‘Amazing Kid’
and ‘Superkid’, children in India couldn’t have asked for better
times not only to showcase their talents in front of a national audience
but rake in the moolah. Whether it is POGO’s Amazing Kid, National
Geographic Channel’s Nat Geo junior Hunt or Zee TV’s Saregama Li’l
Champs, the focus is on churning out little champions.