Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Worst counting day coverage on TV by NDTV

'And The Winner is'..

That's what NDTV had named their counting say continuous analysis program.
The winner is Dr. Manmohan Singh but the looser for sure is none other than NDTV.

I switched on the tv at 6 on counting day.
I wanted to get glued to NDTV. Cause the build up was just fantastic what with 'The Buck Stops Here' and '9 o'clock session by Dr. Pranav Roy'.

But I must say I am extremely disappointed with the way the program was run.
Free discussion with Vir / Shekhar Gupta along with the guests was a fine idea but that didn't happen..
It instead looked like some group discussion round of interview.
In fact it's such a treat watching and listening to Vir but most of the times he had to sit idle while the annoying Shekhar on the other hand kept interrupting the others' talks intermittently.
Vir being the gentleman that he is never did that. So kudos to him.

And the huge plasma screen that they had put up in that 'studio' showed terrains of India.. Chuck.. Can't stop laughing...
Whoever gave that ideas to these people.. What you wanted is a plain and simple map of India and not mountain ranges and greenery and bridges.. You could hardly see the hands / lotuses.. I am still laughing..
When one of the experts : Vikram / Pranav / Vishnu went to that screen and started saying something the others started talking among themselves.. There by negating whatever the screen guy was saying.. Hello.. Wasn't this supposed to be the best program to be aired in the last five years on the best English news channel in India...?
Just imagine this happening : Barkha gets a call in the middle of some discussion and she answers the call on air.. In front of camera.. And then tells everyone, on air, that she got a call from Varun Gandhi asking her and NDTV to publish news about her mom's win.. Amusing to say the least..
And where was viewers' involvement? No caller/ no sms...?
As for other programs, as always Arnab's was very close to reality and true to heart. Some brilliant discussions and very little chaos too.
But Rajdeep's program was simply perfect.
There were guests in these two programs too but it wasn't extremely chaotic like NDTV. It takes only a Rajdeep to bring the panel back to order and ALWAYS put the viewers' interests on a highest priority.
Hope things will change by next election.
Please let me know by writing in comments section if you experienced the same or how?