Indians say no to "Temptation Island" on small screen

Indians say no to "Temptation Island" on small screen

By Sumeet Chatterjee, Indo-Asian News Service

A steamy reality show whose promise of sex and infidelity shocked even the U.S. has been dropped from the Indian small screen following objections from a mass of prudish viewers.

Less than two months after "Temptation Island" went on the air, launching a virtual revolution in conservative Indian TV industry, Rupert Murdoch¿s STAR India Network have decided to drop the show."We completed the first part of eight episodes of Temptation Island Thursday. We are not going ahead with it anymore," said Yashpal Khanna, the channel¿s head of corporate communications.

"We had said we would air only eight episodes and continuation of the programme would depend on the audience response. The viewers don¿t want the show," he told IANS from the network¿s headquarters in Mumbai.

The network, buoyed by the success of largely gripping family sagas of the mother and daughter-in-law kind, has also abandoned its plan to air an Indian version of the show. It said an audience poll had overwhelmingly opposed it.The weekly reality show on STAR World, STAR India¿s English entertainment channel that caters to an upmarket, urban audience, was launched on November 22.

And even as the show was beamed, STAR conducted an audience poll on leading Internet portal indiatimes.com - STAR¿s media partner for the show -- to gauge if an Indian version of "Temptation Island" would be acceptable. According to Khanna, a whopping 63 percent of the viewers polled against the production of an Indian version at the end of eight episodes.

A small section of the audience, however, saw nothing wrong with the show, which, they said, was aimed at bringing adultery, a taboo in Indian society, out of the closet, he said. "It was a very niche programme and meant for a particular segment of the audience. While the show did well in that segment, overall the viewers are not ready for an Indian version."

Temptation Island, a Fox TV production, features four unmarried "but seriously committed" couples and 26 attractive singles -- 13 men and 13 women -- "with no restrictions." The couples are separated for two weeks on a Caribbean island during which time they either resist "temptation" or succumb to it. And all this while the camera rolls on.

Analysts say the launch of "Temptation Island" was part of STAR¿s attempt to explore new programme formats after viewership for its once hugely popular "Kaun Banega Crorepati" -- the Indian version of the British "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" - dropped sharply.

STAR axed the game show, which had initially become one of the most popular TV shows, attracting millions across the country, December 10. "The Indian TV industry is going through a trial-and-error phase. The launch of Temptation Island by STAR was a error right from the beginning," said Bhaskar Rao of the New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.

"The show was too Western, something the Indian audience finds hard to digest. People here are far more conservative in their television viewing habits and you can¿t impose something on them that doesn¿t match with the habits."

India has 70 million television-owning homes, 30 million of which have cable connections and has seen regional language channels mushroom over the past two years.