Realty Shows on tv : Graduation of poverty selling in movies to television

From the time the promos of Sixth Season of the Question Answer Game Show KBC started being shown on television, my son started counting days for the new quiz show to be aired. I could understand his enthusiasm as he himself is  a  quizzer  and never has too much of any good quiz show.  Though I am not a regular  KBC viewer (had the good fortune of  not watching a single complete  episode of the season hosted by SRK), this time had decided to watch atleast first few episodes of the season since it had a knowledge based tag line  -  Sirf Gyaan Hi Aapko Aapka Haq Dilata Hai.

I had missed the first episode , but after seeing the second one, I was sure  it would be the last one for the season for me. I am a great fan of  AB’s anchoring and hosting as much as of his  acting skills and his baritone. There are really very few who can match him as a presenter or host. This time too he was superb on the show.  He immediately connects to the contestants who are absolutely awestruck by him and effortlessly relaxes them. But what hurt my sensibility as a viewer of  a quiz show was the way the show was trying to pander to the emotions of the audience by showing (or selling??) the sob stories of the contestants. The videos were trying  to  highlight the great misfortunes in the lives of the contestants. Even the contestants were opening up  to discuss his personal troubled life, miseries  and problems. In last few  years realty shows have tried  to sell poverty and misery of contestants to increase viewer base. This patent formula for increasing the TRP of the realty shows is emulated here too forgetting the basics of a Q&A show.    Over the past few seasons, it seemed KBC has steadily hunt down contestants whose stories would bring tears to the eyes of the tv viewers and this time was no exception. Since  I hadn’t watched most of the other seasons, I was not  prepared for this fusion of soap opera  and quiz show. When the episode got over , I couldn’t help remembering my childhood days and thinking where are those pure shows gone where a Siddharttha Basu Quiz Program on TV was a pure quiz show unadulterated by any mixture of sob stories . Have we graduated from poverty tourism and poverty selling in movies to poverty selling in realty shows ? Why do the makkers of these shows think this is the only way to increase TRP? I am sure i would have any day preferred a proper quiz program than an amalgamation of soap opera and realty show. If the target audience is given proper focus, any honestly made serial will be successful even without resorting to these methods.   I sincerely hope the other episodes show contestants without any extraordinary story to share so that aspiring contestants with not so unusual lives can hope to find a berth in the show and try their luck on the hot seat only on the basis of their knowledge and nothing else…