Comicstaan

In September and October 2017, auditions for season 1 took place in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore in the form of open mics.[8][9] No contestants were chosen on the spot; videos of their performances were viewed by all judges and hosts together before they decided on the best 10.

During the course of the shows, the 10 contestants went through 7 rounds of performances in order to secure a spot in the grand finale. Each round, the contestants performed in a different genre of comedy and, unlike most competition television series, there were no eliminations till the last round.[10] Comedic genres the contestants performed in included anecdotal, topical, observational, improv, sketch, comedy of terrors, and alternative comedy.[10]

Before each round, the contestants were mentored in each genre by one of the judges, who is touted as the expert of that specific type of comedy.[10] The contestants had a week to prepare fresh material and practice before performing that set live in front of an audience and the judges. After their performance, each contestant was given a score, between 1 and 10, by both the audience and all the judges (except for the expert for that round). Each contestant was given feedback by the judges before revealing their score. Two separate scores were revealed to each contestant - an average of the audience's score and an average of the judges'. The mean of both scores became the final score of the round for each contestant. The finals scores were aggregated each round and, at the end of the 7th round, 5 contestants receiving the best aggregate scores were given places in the finale.

For round 4 (improv), the 10 contestants were separated into 2 groups of 5. Each team was scored and their team's score also became the contestant's individual score. For round 5 (sketch), the contestants were paired up and there were 5 performances. Similarly to round 4, each pair was scored, which then became both contestants' individual scores. Aggregates of the points received by all performers each round were given to the mentor of that week. The best mentor was revealed in the grand finale and Naveen Richard came first and Kaneez Surka and Kenny Sebastian were first and second runners-up, respectively.

For the grand finale, the top 5 contestants performed in the Royal Opera House, Mumbai on 20 December 2017.[11] They were allowed to perform in any of the 7 forms of comedy they were mentored in, including a combination of them. They were scored in a similar process as the previous rounds however, the scores were not aggregated with their previous scores. At the end, Nishant Suri, the contestant with the highest score, won the competition along with prize money of ₹10,00,000.[4]

On 10 October 2018, auditions for season 2 took place. This year the top 22 applicants auditioned for the judges in Mumbai itself on the main Comicstaan set. Applicants had to submit an application to the comicstaan website and then the shortlisted few (around 100 people) met with producers and submitted themselves for vigorous background checks. The top few were invited to Mumbai to audition for the judges. The judges debated and scored the top 22 and based on an 8-hour grueling debate session, they select the top 10 contestants.

During the shows, the 10 contestants went through 7 rounds of performances to secure a spot in the grand finale. Each round, the contestants performed in a different genre of comedy and, unlike most competition television series, there were no eliminations till the last round. Comedic genres the contestants performed in included anecdotal, topical, observational, improv, sketch, comedy of terrors, and alternative comedy.

Before each round, the contestants were mentored in each genre by one of the judges, who is touted as the expert of that specific type of comedy. The contestants had a week to prepare fresh material and practice before performing that set live in front of an audience and the judges. After their performance, each contestant was given a score between 1 and 10, by both the audience and all the judges (except for the expert for that round). Each contestant was given feedback by the judges before revealing their score. Two separate scores were revealed to each contestant - an average of the audience's score and an average of the judges'. The mean of both scores became the final score of the round for each contestant. The final scores were aggregated each round and at the end of the 7th round, 5 contestants receiving the best aggregate scores were given places in the finale.

For the grand finale, the top 5 contestants perform in any of the 7 forms of comedy they were mentored in, including a combination of them. They are scored in a similar process however, the scores were not aggregated with their previous scores. In the end, the highest scorer wins the competition along with prize money of ₹10,00,000.

• Official website
• Comicstaan at IMDb