'The Great Indian Kapil Show' sees a drop in viewership
What's the story
Comedy maestro Kapil Sharma recently shifted his base from Sony TV to Netflix, aiming for more reach and a larger audience outside India.
The show was launched amid immense pomp, with Sunil Grover's return marketed as its biggest selling point.
However, despite a promising start, The Great Indian Kapil Show has seen a drop in viewership, according to data released by the streaming giant.
Viewership drop
Viewership declined drastically in the third week
The first episode, featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, secured 2.4M viewership hours and ranked third on Netflix's Global Top 10 list with 2.5M views.
However, by the end of the second week, it slipped to fifth place on Netflix's Global Top 10 list with total viewership hours at 4.6M and total views at 2.6M.
The decline continued into the third week, with the show garnering only 4.1M viewership hours and a mere 1.7M views.
Local success
'TGIKPS' has consistently ranked as number one in India
Despite the global decline in viewership, The Great Indian Kapil Show has consistently ranked as the number-one series in India since its debut.
Separately, the show's weekly viewership hours dropped to 3.9M and its ranking fell to number eight globally with just 1.2M total views after the first month.
Moreover, this occurred despite an increase in total content from just 57 minutes in the first week to over three hours by the end of its first month.
Comparison
Contrast: Show's performance compared to 'The Kapil Sharma Show'
In contrast, the full episodes of The Kapil Sharma Show on YouTube have achieved impressive viewership numbers.
For instance, SET India's upload of a 2016 episode has garnered around 52M views.
An episode featuring comedians Zakir Khan, Abhishek Upmanyu, and Anubhav Singh Bassi has accumulated close to 19M views.
Coming back to TGIKS, Sharma will next host actor Aamir Khan; a trailer for the episode posted on Tuesday has already amassed around 1.2M views on YouTube.
Show's overview
More about the show and the guests
After the Kapoor family, the second episode featured cricketers Shreyas Iyer and Rohit Sharma, followed by the team of Amar Singh Chamkila: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra, and Imtiaz Ali.
The most recent episode featured Vicky Kaushal and his brother-actor Sunny Kaushal.
Notably, this is not Sharma's first venture with Netflix; his debut stand-up special, titled Kapil Sharma: I'm Not Done Yet, was released in 2022 but reportedly did not make it to the global top 10 list.