Cooku with Comali, also known by the acronym CWC, is an Indian Tamil-language comedy-based cooking competition show aired on Star Vijay and streams on Disney+ Hotstar where the contestants are paired each week with comedians (comalis) who are amateur cooks.[1] The first season premiered on 16 November 2019 and ended on 23 February 2020. The second season premiered on 14 November 2020 and ended on 14 April 2021. The third season premiered on 22 January 2022 and ended on 24 July 2022. The fourth season premiered on 28 January 2023 and ended on 30 July 2023. The contestants along with their comalis are challenged every week and are judged by Chef Damu and Chef Venkatesh Bhat until season 4.[2]
Production
Game format
Every week, the show starts with celebrity chefs getting paired with their Comalis.[3] Then the teams compete in Advantage Task 1 and Task 2. The teams then compete in Main Task and Immunity/Elimination Task. The Advantage task involves a minimal task in which a team does a small task and the winner of the Advantage task is given an advantage during the main task where the team can choose a time frame to work without any obstacles. During the Main task, every team is given a challenge or an obstacle that will make the cooking harder. The teams are given a specific time limit where they must cook with that time frame. Most of the cooking tasks are to be done by Comalis. The cook that gets Immunity is safe from next week's elimination and does not participate in that week. Some week are celebration rounds with no elimination.[4]
The first season of the Tamil reality cooking TV show Cooku with Comali, that was aired first 16 November 2019. This season was hosted by Rakshan and Aranthangi Nisha. The grand finale was aired on 23 February 2020 and winner was Vanitha Vijayakumar.
The second season of the Tamil reality cooking TV show Cooku with Comali, that was aired first on 14 November 2020. This season was hosted by Rakshan. The grand finale was aired on 14 April 2021 and winner was Kani Thiru.[5]
The third season aired on every Saturday and Sunday from 12 January 2022 to 24 July 2022 and ended with 54 Episodes. The winner of the season was Shrutika. This season is hosted by Rakshan and judged by Chef Damodharan and Chef Venkatesh Bhat.
The fourth season aired on every Saturday and Sunday from 28 January 2023 to 30 July 2023 and ended with 43 Episodes. Rakshan has officially once again been appointed as the host for the fourth time. The winner of the season was Mime Gopi, Actress Srushti Dange was the runner-up.[6]
The series gained popularity only during its re – telecast in the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.[7] Following which the launch of the second season became one of the top rated Tamil reality television program both on television and on the digital platform Hotstar.[8][9]
The grand finale of season 2 aired on 14 April 2021 for 6 hours garnered a high viewership rating of 11.1 TVR in urban and 8.1 TVR overall with 6.58 million impressions.[10]