“We at SAB TV have a long-standing association with comedy. The strong fatigue with soaps has given way to comedy shows and since we had a seamless association with comedies, we thought upon doing this show,” says Anooj Kapoor, senior Vice President, SAB TV, adding, “ Last year, most of the films that we saw were comedies that managed to do good business at the box-office. It has been our observation that our audience at large loves to laugh and it’s our intention to cash in on that aspect.” The move is aimed at salvaging the flagging television rating of the channel. According to aMap, a television rating agency, the market share of SAB TV in March last was 0.9 which was higher than that of other GECs like UTV Bindass (0.5) and Zee Next (0.4) but lower than NDTV Imagine and 9X which curently command a market share of 2.9 and 2.1 respectively.

Differentiating Comedy Ka King Kaun with all the other shows, Kapoor adds, “For the first time in a stand-up show, you have a very different structure and different parameters for judgement. There will be three rounds; the first one would be the usual comedy act (Stand-up comedy round); secondly you will see two participants pitted against each other in a war of words (Jugalbandi round) while the third round (Gag round ) would be one in which the participants would have to show their acting capabilities. The round will have them to enact various kinds of characters in different gags. The judges will have a three-fold criteria of judging these established comedians; one for their start-up comedy skills; two for their presence of mind and lastly for their acting prowess. The unique format and well-known comedians make this show hilarious, refreshing and a great relief from the usual fare on television today.”

In all there are twelve best of comedians from across both India and Pakistan pitted against each other for the title ‘Comedy King’. Jaspal Bhatti makes a comeback on television as judge on the show while Divya Dutta is the second celebrity judge. “We keep telling people that with the 12 comedians we have got the 13th free in Bhatti,” rues Kapoor.

Unlike other shows that were shown in the weekend slot, this show will be aired four days a week from Monday to Thursday. On the daily format Kapoor says, “Thanks to the daily fictions, viewers are now used to watching shows in a daily format.”

Says Bhagwant Maan, one of the participants,” After the advent of shows like Laughter Challenge and Comedy Circus the country has brought in the so-called ‘Laughter Revolution’ and now there are a lot of laughter-based programmes, but to me this is the best show Indian television has ever had. It would have looked common if it didn’t have the Jugalbandi and the Gag round.