NEW DELHI: She might not have created much of a flutter on 70 mm, but Shilpa Shetty sure is a hot property on the small screen. The actress had a great debut as reality TV hostess on Sunday. That is if you were to go by figures from television viewership measurement agency Audience Map (aMap).

TV viewers hopped from established channels like Sony, Star Plus and Zee TV to watch Bigg Boss Season 2 on Colors. The reality show was watched by nearly 43.5 lakh people. The TRPs it recorded were 1.4 as compared to 0.3, 0.1, 0.7 and 0.8 (all figures in %) for 9X, NDTV Imagine, Sony and StarPlus. The data is for cable and satellite TV viewers aged 4 years and above in the North, West, East, Hindi-speaking market for the show's inaugural episode (10.00-11.45 pm).

While the programme's reach (43.5 lakh people) is better than Akshay Kumar's Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi on its debut (42.69 lakh people), the latter still managed TRP of 1.7 in its timeband on debut.

The Bigg Boss Season 2, that airs everyday (Monday-Sunday) from 10.00-11.00 PM, features 14 newsmakers, most notably Shilpa Shetty's tormentor on British TV show Big Brother—Jade Goody.

(Goody has reported to have been paid £100,000.) It shows their lives as they are locked in a house in Mumbai and monitored through 32 cameras.Contestants are vying for a prize money of Rs 75 lakh and the season's duration is 84 days. The show shall then be replaced by Ek Khiladi EK Hasina featuring filmstar Sushmita Sen and former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram.

Mudramax president Chandradeep Mitra says: "It's a very promising package for advertisers to back as it's different from the regular song and dance reality shows on other channels." "There is a Rs 1.25 lakh spot rate for advertisements on the show, and the channel is charging anywhere between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 2.8 crore from associate sponsors," informs Lintas Media Group COO and joint president Sudha Natarajan.

"Hindi GECs' 770 GRPs (group rating points) for the sec A 15-24 age group have gone up to 800 with the coming of Colors. Of this, the channel alone commands 135 GRPs. The channel has also spruced up its distribution since the second week of being on air," she adds. "It is a new channel and a new show, so a rating of 1.4 is a decent showing. I'm sure more advertisers will come forward in the days to come as viewers get attracted by the unique format," says Lodestar Universal CEO Shashi Sinha.

The show currently has three associate advertisers in the form of LG LCD TV, Max NewYork Life and Reckitt Benckiser. "We are more inclined on cricket. But with the Champions Trophy in a lurch, we did not want to miss out on this opportunity," says LG India business head (consumer electronics) Amitabh Tiwari. Says Colors CEO Rajesh Kamath: "Bigg Boss Season 2 is our next big ticket offering that will accelerate momentum."