Let’s begin the year with an irreverent look forward to what we would like to see on television in 2026.
First, we would like Bigg Boss (Colors) to continue throughout the year: Season 19 of the reality show ran for 5 months—what’s another seven months?
Every Saturday and Sunday for 52 weeks (wow), we will watch Salman Khan stride across the stage, his hands jammed in his pockets like cement, glaring menacingly at the inmates of the BB house.
Instead of the breaking news on television news channels, we’ll watch the contestants breaking their word, breaking up with each other, making up to each other and generally behaving as though they are still in kindergarten. Naturally, then, they have to be scolded by Salman Sir. What fun.
Next, we would like Tulsi Virani to stay away from her straying husband, Mihir Virani, for as long as possible in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Star Plus, Hotstar). Each time it appears they are about to meet or be reconciled, we want the delicious agony of anticipation to be prolonged. Oooh.
It works for us, and it’s working for the soap opera: In December 2025, Kyunki… displaced Anupamaa (Star Plus, Hotstar) as the most-watched serial.
On the subject of Anupamaa, we want her to continue being sad. Nowadays, she is happy and smiling too much as the show features wedding after wedding. Right now, we are in the middle of Bharti’s marriage rituals, and Anupamaa is ecstatic.
The thing is, it doesn’t suit her as much as her sadness and copious tears, which spill out from her saucer eyes. And how about Anupamaa meeting up with Tulsi in Kyunki…? Parvati from Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki made a guest appearance…
At Kaun Banega Crorepati (Sony TV), can Amitabh Bachchan please get Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the hot seat? He may agree: in the last year, we have seen him criss-cross the country and the world; he has attended weddings, cultural shows, played with the animals through a glass partition at Vantara, and he has attended church on Christmas Day. Why not KBC?
Failing that, let’s have Indian cricket coach Gautam Gambhir with Indian Test captain Shubham Gill and T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, please? And ask Gambhir difficult questions like who he’d like to see as his successor. Ha ha. Joking.
Also, can we have more crime shows? Besides Crime Patrol (Sony), murder and mayhem have been left to streaming channels. If Delhi Crime 3, A Family Man 3, Paatal Lok 2 find high viewership, why deprive Star Plus, Zee, Sony, or Colors viewers of bloody good murder (forgive the pun)?
Cut the noise, please
Murder most foul is doing very well on news channels, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be on entertainment channels.
Think back to the honeymoon murder in which Raja Raghuvanshi was allegedly killed in a plot engineered by his new wife, Sonam. And the death of Shefali Jariwala of ‘Kaanta Laga’ fame, who reportedly died due to anti-ageing medication.
For days together, speculation about Soham and Shefali beat out all political news on TV.
Fighting between Russia and Ukraine is playing well for TV Bharatvarsh, but we beg the channel to stop staging wars with aircraft buzzing like flies, and explosives exploding into gigantic explosions. Please, give us a break.
Also, if we must see politicians fighting, hurling insults at each other, can we watch them in BJP-run states too? We’re awfully tired of the Siddharamaiah-Shivkumar (breakfast) show in Karnataka, which runs on an English news channel almost daily.
Ditto for West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, is constantly (verbally) assaulted by the BJP for her many omissions and commissions. We are tired of watching BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari moaning and groaning on TV microphones.
Why can’t we see BJP chief ministers like Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Bhupendra Patel (Gujarat), Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) or Vishnu Deo Sai (Chhattisgarh) and Mohan Chandra Majhi (Odisha) under attack? In fact, we don’t recognise any of them, barring Fadnavis—about time we did.
And in the spirit of federalism, why can’t we have prime-time debates across news channels feature political opponents from the states? There must be articulate politicians of BJP, Congress and other political parties in Kolkata, Patna, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, or Hyderabad. New voices might bring fresh energy into the 9 pm show.
We want to see new faces, hear fresh opinions, not the same old, same old, Shehnaaz Poonawala versus Supriya Shrinate or Pawan Khera versus Gaurav Bhatia.
And can everyone, from TV news anchors to their guests, please lower the volume button on their vocal cords? Otherwise, they will soon be wearing hearing aids to listen to themselves.
Also read: AQI and Aravalli showed a glimpse of what TV news could do. Then Bangladesh lynching happened
To more accountability
And while we are at it, we would love to watch Parliament function in an orderly way. The noise pollution inside both houses rivals the air pollution outside. Can the Opposition stop its protests? Can the ruling party be more accountable?
Let’s share an open secret with them: These daily adjournments of Parliament are boring; we would much rather watch the antics of US President Donald Trump.
In the second half of 2025, television news developed a public conscience as it aggressively campaigned against AQI and mining in the Aravalli hills, bail for the Unnao rape case convict Kuldeep Sengar, and IndiGo’s flight cancellation. It also took up the case for and against stray dogs being removed from public spaces.
Yeh dil maange more. May this continue into 2026.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)