Big day broadcasts

Paper Edition | Page: 14

April Jasmin - Ustadz Solmed. (kapanlagi.com)

For many of us, wedding ceremonies are private moments that we only want to share with loved ones and close friends. But a growing trend today is for celebrity couples and public figures to let everybody in on their matrimonial act through live TV broadcasts.

With the spectacular rise of TV infotainment shows in recent years, viewers are accustomed to getting the inside view of celebrity couples’ wedding ceremonies. Entertainment news portal tabloidbintang.com reported that actress and singer Sophia Latjuba pioneered the sale of exclusive broadcast rights for her wedding to businessman Michael Villareal.

It is only in the past couple of years that TV stations have begun to compete to air such celebrity weddings, including to do it live. Some celebrities have coverage tie-ins with the TV stations they work for. One example is the presenter of music show Dahsyat, Ayu Dewi, whose co-host Raffi Ahmad came to her wedding to report the event live for the TV show.

The public also had the chance to watch the exchange of vows between Soleh Mahmoed, better known as Ustadz Solmed, and April Jasmin, broadcast live on SCTV as part of a reality show titled Status Selebriti. Held on the auspicious date of Nov. 11, 2011, the wedding of the young cleric who starred in Pesantren dan Rock n Roll, a soap aired on SCTV, was aired at Al Muhajirin Mosque, Ciledug, Tangerang, Banten.

Actor and presenter Andhika Pratama, who married Ussy Sulistyowati on Jan. 21, 2012, had his wedding covered on two of SCTV’s shows, InBox, which he co-hosts, and Hot Shot.

The TV shows, which featured the wedding preparations and the exchange of vows, garnered respectable ratings of 16.8 and 24 respectively.

When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s youngest son, Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, married Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa’s daughter, Aliya, on Nov. 24, 2011, Trans TV and Trans 7 aired two hours of coverage of what some stations touted as a “royal” wedding. Trans TV received ratings of 30.9 percent from airing the wedding vows, while Trans 7 received 20.4 from airing the wedding reception.

But it was the recent wedding of singer-songwriter Anang Hermansyah and Ashanty that received the most coverage. Through a reality show titled Jodohku (My Soulmate), aired on RCTI, viewers watched the wedding in its entirety, including the wedding vows through to the glittering reception.

There were those who considered the live broadcast of the wedding as inappropriate and complained to the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), but RCTI said the shows gained a good ratings share.

Driantama RS, head corporate secretary of RCTI, told kapanlagi.com that his company had not violated any regulation through the broadcast. He argued that the station was not the first to air celebrity weddings and that it followed the example of previously aired shows.

“The ratings for the televised wedding were good. For Anang and Ashanty’s wedding, we had more than a 30 percent total share. It meant the public responded to the show positively,” he said.

The whopping ratings led to the July 6 spin-off Ngunduh Mantu (introducing the daughter-in-law to the groom’s neighborhood), in which Ashanty was brought to Anang’s hometown of Jember in East Java.