Nitin Vaidya says Akshay Kumar's absence didn't affect Master Chef 2

When Star Plus announced Master Chef Season 2 sans Akshay Kumar, many feared that the ratings might come down with no star name to back the series. And that is exactly what happened, this culinary reality show which is now reaching its finale week is averaging around 2.1 much below its last years’ performance. However, Tellychakkar.com spoke to Nitin Vaidya, Business Head, Hindi Channels, STAR India about this and he had a different perspective altogether : “Master Chef Season 2 has done well, and ratings are just one parameter. STAR always believes in offering differentiated reality concepts be it Master Chef, Just Dance or the soon to be launched Survivor India.” Incidentally, Survivor India will replace Master Chef from 6 January 2012. While it is obvious that the choice of international chef Vikas Khanna as the Khiladi Kumar replacement has not really worked, Nitin begs to differ. He is quite happy with the performance of Vikas calling him “the most endearing personality of the show”. In fact, he thinks that Akshay’s absence hasn’t hurt the show‘s popularity. “Akshay Kumar was an important part of the previous season and will be seen in the finale,” Nitin says of the Bollywood actor. When asked if Akshay could again be a part of season 3; Vaidya was non-committal. In fact, he was not ready to give any time frame for the launch of third season. “We will get it back but right now we have not put our mind to it,” ends Vaidya.