Television News makers of 2008 - The award goes to...

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2008 has been a particularly exciting year for the small screen, save the last couple of months, with terror strikes and television workers' strike hitting viewers badly.

Here the awards to the News makers of 2008:

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The 'axe which fell too soon on us award' goes to Indrani and Peter Mukerjea's 9X. The first of the general entertainment channels to take off in 2008, while the news and music arms of 9X did pretty well on the TRP charts, the entertainment quotient left a lot to be desired. They promised the magic of the navrasas, but none of the juices agreed with the viewers' palate.




The 'finally we belled the cat award' goes to Star Plus for having the guts and the gumption to say, 'Aur nahin bas aur nahin' to three of Ekta Kapoor's K-soaps. That they got in Kiran Bedi's Aap Ki Kachehri to fill Tulsi Virani's shoes, has still left the industry pundits and the carping couch potatoes wondering about their programming strategies.

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The 'I will rise from the dead award' goes to Maa Ekta Kapoor. 2008 wasn't particularly lucky for Jeetu's daughter. If her mega ambitious take on Mahabharat had critics and the masses frothing at the mouth, Bheeshma with a six pack, Draupadi in a ***y Manish Malhotra creation and the five insipid (non) actors strutting around as Pandavas failed to woo the viewers. That it also proved to be one of the nails in the coffin of 9X didn't make it easy either for the Mukerjeas. But this could just be the calm before the storm. Kapoor's detractors still have faith in her and her loyalists are waiting for that one 'Eureka' moment from her.

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The 'hardly stirred viewers' imagination award' goes to Sameer Nair and Co. When the KBC man beckoned everyone for the launch of NDTV Imagine, everyone turned up. Big production houses, interesting story concepts, a competent creative team and the halo of past successes which Nair carried with him didn't stop the channel from being a nice-but-not-enough viewing option.

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The 'divine intervention which TV programming could do with award' goes to the combined successes of Imagine's Ramayan and COLORS’ Jai Shree Krishna. The mythos were back and how!!