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…
