'Bigg Boss 2' gets maximum viewership first night!

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) The introductory episode of the second season of TV reality show "Bigg Boss" drew maximum viewership in its time slot among general entertainment channels (GECs). Over four million viewers sat glued to their TV sets watching contestants such as Rahul Mahajan, Sanjay Nirupam, Monica Bedi and Jade Goody.

According to Audience Measurement and Analytics Limited's overnight TV audience measurement system, Amap, "Bigg Boss", the Indian version of popular British reality show "Celebrity Big Brother" got an average television rating point (TRP) of 1.4 between its 10:00-11:45 p.m. time slot Sunday in the North, East and West Indian regions.

The channel Colors, on which the show is being aired, emerged winner in the time slot, leaving behind major players like Star Plus that garnered an average rating of 0.8 closely followed by Sony TV whose rating was pegged at 0.7 by Amap.

Though the show was slated to air for only an hour, it went on for 45 minutes more, thanks to a glittering affair when all the 14 contestants were officially introduced.

Television actors Ketaki Dave and Rakhi Vijayan, item girl Sambhavna Seth, actors Payal Rohatgi and Monica Bedi, non-celebrity Elina apart from British TV reality star Jade Goody are part of the female inmates of the "Bigg Boss" house.

Among the men, model-actor Zulfi Syed, music reality show winner Debojit Saha, MTV Roadies 5.0 winner Ashutosh Kaushik, TV actress Shweta Tiwari's estranged husband Raja Chaudhry, Congress member Sanjay Nirupam, Rahul Mahajan - son of late Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan - and comedian Ehsaan Qureshi will add to the melodrama.

While all the contestants will be locked in a specially designed house for three months under 24-hour surveillance through multiple cameras with no access to telephones or television, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, who had won "Celebrity Big Brother" in 2007, will be hosting the show.

Shilpa, who will appear only in the elimination episodes each Friday, communicating with the contestants through a TV screen, had emerged winner despite racist remarks in "Celebrity Big Brother" by Goody, who has now come to India to "change people's perception" about her.

Though Goody is expected to have a hard time considering the language barrier in the house (contestants are supposed to converse in Hindi only), Shilpa has advised her to use the "jaadu ki jhappi" (magical hug) whenever she feels low or gets into a fight with someone.

Apart from the excitement, there are expected to be controversies galore on the show.

• Television