Ball(er.. bath)room singers?

The surfeit of 24x7 channels has put paid to what one would consider tasteful programming. Serials especially are no different from one another; all they need is a scheming vamp or a totally obnoxious villan (or both). There isn't one iota of good values... only details of how to pitch somebody elses downfall. (Baa, Bahu Aur Baby though is an exception). I'd so much prefer one episode shows like Numb3rs or Criminal Mind anyday.

Serials you can afford to ignore, but when some two cent singer on yet another "discovering the next big singing sensation" type program murders a classic, it is too much to take. (An absolutely appalling set of performances are being played out on a Kannada channel even as I write this). Come to think of it, I fail to understand how these contestants are chosen in the first place (It does, however, give *me* hope of someday being a participant! But hey, more than a few people have said I have a very good voice ;-)).

There are a few such shows that seem to be good though. Currently, I'd say Voice of India Chhote Ustaad (Star Plus) and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs (Zee) are truly good, the tragedy being their broadcast timings clash. My take is that the Hindi folks have a wider sample space to look for talent -- very few of the top contestants in these shows are native Hindi speakers.

Voice of Karnataka (ETV Kannada) will hopefully be a redeeming factor on the local front.