Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’ is being broadcasted once again on Doordarshan after 33 years. Earlier it was reported that ‘Ramayan’ had become the most viewed program worldwide. The final episode of ‘GoT’ brought in a series record of 19.3 million viewers but that record was broken by ‘Ramayan’. But, looks like there as has been a glitch and the world record is not true.

On the morning of 2 May, DD National tweeted, “Thanks to all our viewers!! #RAMAYAN – WORLD RECORD!! Highest Viewed Entertainment Program Globally.” The accompanying video stated that the 16 April telecast of the mythological show was watched by 77 million viewers worldwide, making it the most-viewed episode of TV ever. An infographic compared Ramayan with Game of Thrones (17.4m) and The Big Bang Theory (18m).”

Thanks to all our viewers!!#RAMAYAN – WORLD RECORD!! pic.twitter.com/EGLYwjkIey

— Doordarshan National (@DDNational) May 2, 2020

Now,  ‘Ramayan’ might have beaten ‘Game of Thrones’ in viewership but that still doesn’t make it the world record holder. However, it is now revealed that the most-watched entertainment show in the world was a beloved sitcom, M*A*S*H*, that was called by many as the best sitcom ever. According to a report on livemint, the finale of the sitcom, aired in 1983 and it had as many as 106 million viewers.

As the re-runs began, Doordarshan’s viewership rose exponentially. From 9 million in the second half of January, it went to 545 million in the last week of March. “These were the highest numbers we’d seen in the past five years,” said Romil Ramgarhia who is the COO of Broadcast Audience Research Centre (BARC), the official TRP measuring agency in India. “Not even a sporting event [like IPL] comes close.”

It seems while making the claim of the “world record”, Doordarshan referred to the 2018 report by Glance. “Looking at it, Ramayan has done better than any entertainment show across the world,” says Ramgarhia. BARC claims it has no idea what basis Doordarshan made its world record claim on. “We hadn’t even mentioned Game of Thrones,” says Ramgarhia. “They might have got that data from somewhere else.”

The report also quoted, Shashi Shekhar Vempatti who is the CEO of Prasar Bharti, which includes Doordarshan and All India Radio. He stood by the ‘world record’, said, “We know for a fact that several more have watched outside the TV ratings universe through mobile TV services that stream DD Channels such as JioTV, Mxplayer, etc.” he added, “I would not read much into the record aspect beyond underscoring how families came together during the lockdown to re-experience the epic in an unprecedented manner and that the public broadcaster was effective in its role in keeping Indians ‘Stay Home Stay Safe.’”

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Categories: Bollywood