Amusing Dynamics of Two Television Shows!

This post is not a researched article nor even an entertainment news item! It’s an account based on personal observations that, as I perceived, might indicate rather funny amusing goings-on behind the scenes! I’ve decided to write it down here since it involves two huge movie personalities, two great shows and the Sony Entertainment Television (SET). The huge Bollywood celebrities are none other than Amitabh Bachchan and another stalwart but a younger actor Ajay Devgn. The great shows are the Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) quiz hosted by Amitabh Bachchan and the Crime Patrol 2026 hosted now by Ajay Devgn. The two shows are currently being broadcast on SET.

Season 18 of the KBC started from August 10, 2026 with its traditional slot of 9 pm to 10.30 pm Monday to Friday. When Amitabh Bachchan seemed to be struggling to finally shift from the accustomed heroes’ roles to character roles the KBC Show, launched on Star Plus channel in 2000, re-established him as an actor whom people of all ages across the country still loved and adored boundlessly, and after the thundering success of Season-1, roles started to be specially created for him in an unending stream of Bollywood movies. The Star Plus channel aired Season-2 in 2002 and then experimented with Shahrukh Khan for Season-3 in 2007. SET acquired full rights of the Show in 2010 and the channel launched Season-4 in the same year after which the show has been going on in the channel, only with brief pauses. Last year the 25^th Anniversary of the KBC Quiz Show was celebrated during Season-17 on the channel.

In recent Seasons it’s been customary for the Show to exceed the time slot given by, at times, more than half an hour, and nobody could really object to it, including the channel that handled the overshooting seamlessly by mostly keeping repeat programmes or just fillers after KBC ends. Season-18, on air since August 10, has also been no exception. However, as the Devgn-hosted Crime Patrol Season-2026 was launched on August 31, Monday-Thursday at 10.30 pm with the ads proclaiming for days that the New Season would start just after the KBC Show, things started to change quick and fast.

While Amitabh Bachchan is the Star of the Millennium, Ajay Devgn is one of the most beloved actors—known for his intense as well as comic performances, and therefore, the broadcasting channel could hardly afford the chance of offending both, even minimally, by perhaps causing an early end or a late start. It’s most appropriate for a much-hyped new show to start on time allotted. Besides, as far as the SET is concerned the Crime Patrol show is even older than KBC, started in 2003 and having aired more than 600 episodes. Not the least that this marks Ajay Devgn’s first ever official appearance as host of a television show. 

And, on that momentous evening of Monday, 31^st August, I was piqued to no less extent by the hurry demonstrated by Big B or AB toward the end part of the KBC episode, so atypical of his calm composure and command. I understood. He was in a hurry to conclude the episode for the timely start of the launch episode of Crime Patrol New Season. Yes! The legend did end on time and the intense host Ajay Devgn came on the TV screen dot on time.

The next evening, I tuned in to KBC a bit late and missed the beginning when Big B makes an entry literally running into the arena. However, as the show progressed I got piqued again! I observed a change of costumes for the host as well as the rollover contestant minutes into the episode (the attractive new suits of Big B just cannot be missed and I often wonder how many of them might have been stitched for him and whatever happened to those singular suits after!). It meant at the beginning of the episode both of them still wore the dresses of the last episode and then suddenly the costumes changed. I had an idea why, but waited for the next day’s episode, that is on Wednesday, 2^nd September.

I confirmed my idea that day: at the beginning the host and the rollover contestant wore last episode’s costumes and after the first commercial break they appeared in new ones! Therefore, I concluded, because of the end-n-start hurry some portions of the KBC episodes could not be completed and were left out as arrears which got proper attention in the new episodes! Finally, thanks to the deft handling of the channel, on Thursday, the 3rd of September or last evening, I became the proud beholder of a slight change of the time slots! The KBC episode is now to end at 10.40 pm, ten minutes later than previously, and the Crime Patrol 2026 episode begins at 10.40 pm instead of the 10.30 pm slot. Nobody would really mind that! All is well!