India Today bets on quiz show for Sunday morning eyeballs

English news channel will air News Wiz, a 13 episode quiz show conceptualised by Siddharth Basu and anchored by Rajdeep Sardesai

For most children growing up in the 90’s, Sunday mornings meant watching Derek O’Brien quiz students from various schools on the Bournvita Quiz Contest on Zee TV (and later on Sony Entertainment Television).

India Today, the television channel from the TV Today Group, hopes to bring back quizzing shows on TV with News Wiz, a new quiz show that goes on air on July 24. Conceptualised by Siddharth Basu’s Tree of Knowledge and Big Synergy and hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai, the 13 episode show will air on Sundays at 11 am, with repeats in the evening at prime time. 

The hour long show will feature teams from 27 schools from the country compete through a series of audio-visual rounds. Each episode will have three teams/schools (two students each) competing and the season will have nine qualifying episodes, three semi-finals and a final episode. The intellectual property rights for the show lie with Tree of Knowledge and the format has been developed by the company for India Today, at the behest of the broadcaster. 

“We shortlisted these 27 schools from close to 1000 entries we received. Some of the schools (almost 400) entered via online test while the others the regular way. In the end we were down to 60 schools, and of these, after interviews and further elimination procedures, we arrived at 27. These 27 schools will now face each other,” says Siddharth Basu, chairman and managing director, Big Synergy. 

The show will be shot every week and the content/questions will be based on the news of the current week. Apart from hosting the show, Sardesai will also be involved in framing questions and scripting the content for the week’s episode. “News channels need to redefine weekend programming.

Earlier, it used to consist of more feature-ish shows, which the infotainment channels like Nat Geo and TLC do much better and on larger scales now. So we thought a quiz show may be a good way to start. Instead of competing for the weekday prime, we decided to focus on redefining weekend prime. The 11 am Sunday slot is ideal for family viewing,” he adds.

Back in the day, O’Brien hosted BQC also took the Sunday morning slot, and was quiet popular with the brands and advertisers, despite Cadbury retaining the title sponsorship for perpetuity. More recently, Star India revived the slot with Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate.

The talk-show, which has had three editions till date, took the morning slot by storm in its first season, but did see tapering in ratings over the next couple of installments, though advertisers continued to back the property. It is currently on a break since Khan, the producer and host of the show, is busy with his film commitments. 

Sources reveal that sponsors are pretty positive about News Wiz as well. The channel is targeting a total of seven sponsors – a title sponsor, two co-presenting sponsors and four associate sponsors.

Tata Motors has come on board as one of the key sponsors, and five other brands are in discussion. While the revenue target was not revealed, those in the know estimate that the show should be able to rake in substantial money over the 13 episodes. Currently commissioned only for 13 episodes, Basu and Sardesai are hopeful that the show will have multiple seasons.