Bigg Boss 18 will never be able to recreate the magic of season 13. Here's why

Salman Khan's Bigg Boss 18 has been struggling to make it to the top 10 in the TRP race, failing to recreate the magic of season 13.

Salman Khan-hosted show Bigg Boss has been the audience's favourite source of entertainment and masala. However, since season 13, the reality show seems to have lost its punch. The ever-falling TRPs and viewership is a proof for the same. Season 18 has been struggling to make it to the top 10 and there are multiple reasons for the same.

Salman Khan has been hosting Bigg Boss for last 15 years.

Bigg Boss 18 low TRP

Bigg Boss 18 had a great start with a rating of 2.3 on its premiere. However, since then, the show is struggling to even touch a rating of 2.0. Last week, the show registered a rating of 1.3 despite Karan Veer Mehra bringing his A-game and several controversial fights. The most successful season of Bigg Boss, season 13, had a rating of 2.8 on its premiere and had an average TRP of 2.1-2.5 every week. However, the following seasons failed to match this success. Season 14 had an average TRP of 1.8, season 15 reportedly recorded the lowest rating of 0.9. The season 16, however, saw a slight increase, reaching rating of 1.9 and season 17 had a rating of 2.0.

This season, despite a great start, is failing to recreate the magic that season 13 created for the viewers. Here's what we think might be the possible reasons behind season 18 losing its hold on the audience:

Bigg Boss' interference and bias

Bigg Boss openly declared that he will be biased with the contestants in season 17 and the audience clearly hated it. However, Bigg Boss failed to observe that and even in this season, he clearly announced Vivian Dsena as his Top 2, hence setting a narrative that is now helping him in the game. The constant interference by Bigg Boss in the contestants' game and sometimes even spoon-feeding his favourites, has made the reality show lose its essence of being a personality-driven show.

Fewer known faces

The constant insults, poking of the contestants by Bigg Boss has led to many known faces declining the offer to star in the reality show. This includes Shoaib Ibrahim, TV star and Deepika Kakkar's husband, who rejected the show citing it's no more a personality show. Recently, Bigg Boss made a personal attack on Karan Veer Mehra by taunting him for not being able to maintain relationships in the BB house and in his real life too.

A still of the contestants of Bigg Boss season 13.

Unlike Bigg Boss 13 which had several known faces like Sidharth Shukla, Rashami Desai, Arti Singh, Shefali Bagga, Devoleena Bhattacharjee and others, except for Vivian Dsena, Eisha Singh, Shilpa Shirodkar and Karan Veer Mehra, rest of the contestants are relatively new for the audience this season.

Stupid tasks

Bigg Boss 13 kept the audience entertained and hooked to their screens thanks to the interesting tasks and Bigg Boss interfering only to change the dynamics in the house and make the game even more interesting. However, this season, the tasks seems one sided and boring. For example, a musical chair task to get the ration of the house or a domino making task which was simply impossible to be completed, looking at the rivalry in the house. This season tasks get assigned just to select a new Time God.

Dull Weekend Ka Vaar episode

The Weekend Ka Vaar episodes this season are totally biased. Whether it is continuous bashing of Karan Veer Mehra and support to Vivian Dsena and his group or a complete praising session for Karan, proving everyone else in the house wrong, it is evident that even Bigg Boss is confused and is trying a hit and trial method to see what can work out for the show.

Forced content

This season's content seems to revolve around unnecessary fights over food and threats to shut down discussions. From Avinash Mishra attempting to channel Asim Riaz from day one to Bigg Boss manufacturing fake bonds, such as between Avinash Mishra and Vivian Dsena, while breaking others by selectively revealing partial information to favored contestants—everything feels like a desperate attempt to entertain the audience.

Unnecessary wildcard entries

While the audience was already grappling with the lackluster performance of the existing contestants, Bigg Boss introduced wildcards Digvijay Rathee and Kashish Kapoor, who initially appeared strong but soon proved to be just as lost as the rest. Then came Edin Rose, Yamini Malhotra, and Aditi Mistry, who have been as pointless as Bigg Boss' tasks. Yamini seems desperate to emulate Shehnaaz Gill, while Edin tries hard to portray the "angry young woman" persona.

The lack of strong players has also made this game one-sided. Moreover, it looks like no contestants is as strong a 'player' as Bigg Boss himself. Bigg Boss himself is turning out to be the most hated 'contestant' of this season, thanks to his constant interference in the game.

The season 13 was a personality show with everything in the mix: star power, new faces like Shehnaaz Gill and Asim Riaz who gained popularity, entertainment, fun Weekend Ka Vaar, interesting tasks that changed dynamics in the house and no interference from Bigg Boss. All of this contributed to the blockbuster success which has so far not been recreated by Bigg Boss 18.