We’re great fans of quiz shows but sometimes struggle to find interesting ones on Youtube. For the past few days, we’ve been watching episodes of the UK edition of The Weakest Link. In the original version, years ago, the host played the part of a nasty school mistress pretending that everyone was scared of her. I suppose that’s showbiz. The current host is a comedian, called Ramesh, who is more likely to insult the contestant than frighten them.
The other night, by mistake, I opened an episode from the US edition: same format, same style of host but heaps more money on offer. Eventually, the final two contestants went head to head. One was a young man who had not had a question wrong throughout the show, the other was a dimwit called, I think, Spencer. I don’t know how he got to the final; in my eyes, he was the weakest link in every round. They were each asked eight questions and, somehow, against all the odds, Spencer was getting questions right.
Question 6 was, “Who was the Greek god who gave fire to man?” Spencer thought deeply, and said “Prometheus!” Marilyn and I spoke as one: ”No way! There is no way Spencer knew the answer to that question.”
Our thought is that the producers knew that Spencer would be an embarrassment in the final so fed him some of the answers to make it look less one-sided. He was never going to win but, at least, he didn’t lose by 8-nil. In fact, I think he lost 8 to 7.
I remember seeing the movie Quiz Show, made in the 90’s which exposed dodgy US TV shows in the 1950s where, to improve ratings, producers gave more popular contestants a bit of a hand. There was also a scandal in the UK on Who Wants to be a Millionaire but that involved coughing from someone in the audience? It’s clear that nothing has changed. Ratings are all; integrity is just a meaningless four-syllable word.
I also discovered there is a new Australian version of the show with Magda Szubanski as the host and we can’t wait to see it.
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