ITV

Tag: Zoom’s

  • Zoom’s Red Hot list votes John Abraham as ‘Most Desirable Man’

    MUMBAI: Bollywood actor John Abraham has been declared the winner of the 50 Most Desirable Men on Zoom’s Red Hot Countdown show. He edged out Salman Khan to secure the coveted position.


    The winners list threw up quite a few surprises, and as many disappointments. The list included Indian men from various fields-Bollywood, models, authors, sportspersons, socialites and leaders 
    Though they missed the top spots, the remaining Khan duo Shah Rukh and Saif were close behind, winning the fourth and fifth positions.
    Voted third was Abhishek Bachchan, while co-actors Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan and Milind Soman were voted sixth, seventh and tenth respectively. The only one from the Indian cricket team in the top 10 was Irfan Pathan at number nine.
    With this, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu (who was recently declared the Most Desirable Woman) are the hottest couple in India today. Kashmiri politician Omar Abdullah came in eight – the highest position attained by a non-film personality. Amitabh Bachchan, 63 years old, was declared the 12th most desirable man in the country.
    While the rest of the list may turn your ideas of the drool quotient completely on its head, it’s interesting to see the younger brigade steadily beating the old timers at their own game. Cricketer Rahul Dravid was voted 15th , while teammates Yuvraj Singh and Zayed Khan were 17th and 18th on the list, respectively.
    As reported earlier in Indiantelevision.com, Zoom telecasts archival footage and interesting trivia of the celebrities through a voice over driven show, and thereby sets the ground for viewers to express their opinion. Viewers in turn can SMS their votes to 8888 and will be rewarded if their choice matches the jury’s selection.
    Zoom will repeat the show tomorrow at 9pm. The next category to be aired on 28 January features ‘Most Wanted TV Stars’.

  • Zoom’s ‘Red Hot List’ to cover 10 categories

    MUMBAI: In tune with the latest international celebrity trends, lifestyle and entertainment channel Zoom has kicked off a series of Red Hot Countdown activities. 
    The ten categories that the channel would cover include Most Desirable Women, Most Desirable Men, Most Wanted TV Stars and Most Popular TV Couples.
    Zoom has already unveiled the first of the series which selected the most desirable women alive in India. Among the final 25 most desirable women chosen, Bollywood actresses made it to the top five with Bipasha Basu winning the title. Aishwarya Rai, was second and Priyanka Chopra was voted third.


    Zoom has already completed its selection process through online voting (via indiatimes.com), which was later collated with the verdict of a six-member celebrity & media jury. 
    The channel presently telecasts archival footage and interesting trivia of the celebrities through a voice over driven show, and thereby sets the ground for viewers to express their opinion. Viewers in turn can SMS their votes to 8888 and will be rewarded if their choice matches the jury’s selection.
    The next in the line, a search for the Most Desirable Man, will be held on 21 and 22 January. Irfan Pathan, Omar Abdullah, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Gandhi, Saif Ali Khan and Rahul Dravid are amongst the top 50 wannabees.
    According to Zoom programming head Aparna Pande, the channel has taken up the property as an annual feature. Zoom COO Upen Roop Rai speaks about the initiative, “With the Red Hot Countdown, that debuts this year on Zoom, we are reiterating our position. The validity of the countdown is bound to be accepted, since it has been compiled by the czars in the film industry as well as media and most importantly the Indian audience.”
    Schedule for the contests coming up:

    1. Most Desirable Men (21 & 22 January) 
    2. Most Wanted TV Stars (28 January) 
    3. Most Popular TV Couples (29 January) 
    4. Most Fashionable (4 February) 
    5. Generation Next (5 February) 
    6. Most Wanted Vamps and Villains (11 February) 
    7. Most Beautiful Couples (12 February)

    The Red Hot Countdown series will be telecast Saturday & Sunday at 7:30 pm till mid- February and will be repeated every Tuesday (today onwards) at 9 pm.

  • Reality show, soap in Zoom’s sights

    MUMBAI: It’s just completed a year on air and Zoom, the Times Group’s glamour, entertainment and lifestyle channel, has a whole host of fresh new initiatives laid out on the programming front. Coming soon on the channel are a reality show and at least one soap.
     
     
    Elaborating further on the channel’s plans, Upen Roop Rai, COO, Television Division, says, “In the first year, our aim was really to establish our positioning as a glamour, lifestyle and entertainment channel. Now, as we enter the second year, we are looking at introducing some fresh new initiatives on the programming front.”

    “To begin with, we are looking at doing a reality show and are even open to bringing in the soap culture to the channel. But, both the genres will be set into our paradigm, which is glamour and lifestyle. We definitely believe that the reality genre does work and that soaps will bring in some amount of appointment viewing.”

    On being queried further though, Rai refused to go into details, except to say, “All I can say is that the reality show will be adapted from an international format. It will be highly interactive and gadgety. The soaps will have an oomph factor to it and will be fitting into our culture of glamour and lifestyle. We are in the process of working on these shows and probably by early 2006 we should have them on air.”
     
     

    As for immediate plans, the channel continues with its experimentation to target metrosexuals tired of the saas bahu sagas. Says Aparnaa Pande, head of programming, “All our programmes revolving around glamour, lifestyle and entertainment have had very successful runs. We have always been open to feedback and experimentation. Some of our top programmes like Page 3, Pop Korn have been very successful with our viewers. In fact, Pop Korn, which is one of the highest rated shows on the channel, is one of its kind in the space. Since here we talk about a television stars life and also bring in scoops. Then there were some Bollywood and Zoom shows like Filmi Fever as also movie premieres like the Big Nite.”

    As of now, the channel is believed to be an ideal hangout for viewers who want to `snack in and out’. Also, most of the programming is more skewed towards glamour and Bollywood and less of lifestyle. To which Rai adds, “In India, the word ‘lifestyle programming’ would really mean different things in different contexts. So, in places like Kanpur our Page 3 parties and fashion shows are a real hit.”

    On the advertising front, the channel has more than 120 brands on board, which includes all the large spenders. Says Rai, “There are really no free lunches on the channel. And in fact, we are not encouraging low spending clients to be with us.”

    The channel has much activity planned in October. The month, dubbed the Big “O”, will have the following activities:
    The Happy Hour on Zoom will kick of the Big ‘O’ (on the 6th, 7th and 8th of October) – this will be essentially a sprinkling of the best Zoom shows.

    The month will also feature the best parties (The Zoom party and The Bombay Times party are two which will be the most exclusive and recent). As part of the Big “O” will be features that will essentially do something unique around Star birthdays.