SO this is the face that launched a million fans—if not more. The sort of thing stars do, even starlets manage, but a Punjabi newsreader doing so in redneck America? How on earth, or over satellite, did that happen?
As so often happens, Daljit Dhaliwal showed she mattered most when it seemed she was leaving. Announcement came that the ITN World News that Daljit anchored was to be taken off a group of 19 American TV stations it broadcast to, she broadcast to. A howl of protest went up. The Americans could find their news somewhere else, not Daljit. From everyone's secret love she became the collective idol.
Daljit Dhaliwal, 35, single, has co-anchored Channel 4 news in Britain for a while now, but she's nothing like a celebrity in Britain. She used to anchor the BBC World news, but if viewers noticed when she left, they did nothing. The Americans are different, they like to have what they like. They flooded the ITN with demands to have her back; set up groups to reclaim Daljit.
Across local TV stations in New York, Washington DC, Florida, San Jose in California, in Los Angeles, in Dallas, in Philadelphia, and in the America few outside America ever get to hear about—Plattsburgh, Providence, Tacoma, Dayton, San Bernardino, Indianapolis, Merrilville, Denver, Pullman, Huntingdon Beach—Americans, mostly males, suddenly found themselves wanting to have Daljit back in their homes.
She had been noticed before in America. The magazine Rolling Stone declared her the Hot News Reader of 1998. "While most talking heads crackle with contrived authority and plastic sex appeal," it wrote in August, "Dhaliwal, who anchors London's Emmy-winning ITN World News, radiates cool intelligence and quaint English good-neighbourliness." The Indian face with the "enchanting West London accent" had quietly become a part of Americans' lives.
She told Rolling Stone: "In international news, you're invariably dealing with gruesome stories: earthquakes, coups, genocide. You keep your objectivity, but at the same time you're a human being and you've got to be compassionate." Here Rolling Stone found the key to her success: "It's this elusive combination of gravity and humanity that makes Dhaliwal worth keeping an eye on."
THE real reason might not be as clever as that comment. In the end, it's more than just something about her face. A face unglamourised in its aloofness, a look almost untelevised. A voice that speaks words, does not deliver soundbites; a smile that comes from person, not for camera; eyes that speak to you, not an audience.
To an America brought up on dummies cloned into TV-speak, Daljit is what she is not. None of that smug self-consciousness or self-celebratory airs TV personalities exude. She has charm that has heart in it, and which, in the America of the day, is reassuringly unLewinskyesque. Gravity and humanity, yes, but there's something here also of an undefinable connection between pind-di-kurhi and basic-American.
True to expected form, she speaks of "we" the ITN, not of she, Daljit. "World News has a very loyal following, especially in the US," she says. "I think its popularity lies in the fact that we're truly international in our coverage. When our viewers switch on they can find out exactly what's happened in the world—there's no bias and no commentary." Not very Punjabi in her understatement there. The truth, as much of America seems to know, is that it's she who's made ITN a success story in America.
"Daljit Admirers of the World Unite!" a fan club in America proclaimed. Her fans beg for any information on her, including word of any "Daljit sighting to report". The Americans send her mail, baseball caps, proposals, advice on haircuts, and appeals to be told her birthday. All heart here, but heart in which TV stations have seen commerce. From November 2, ITN in rescheduled World News broadcasts will go out to 40 stations covering 38 per cent of America's population, not just the 19 smaller stations before.
An Atlanta station that had decided to drop ITN is sticking to it now because to lose Daljit is to lose viewers. Another wants to replace ITN with BBC, but has begged ITN for one-minute "news breaks" featuring Daljit, just to keep viewers happy.
And so ITN now has a far wider TV audience in the US than any British programme from any company has had before. Daljit, more than anyone else, has delivered American audiences to Britain. The BBC which had outbid ITN earlier in winning a contract to broadcast over the smaller 19 stations, is left far behind after the new deal signed by ITN. All this from someone who joined the BBC as trainee reporter in 1990. Now, in her face rival ITN has found a fortune.
