Game shows: whether advantages outweigh disadvantages?
- nvkieuoanh
- May 9, 2019
- 3 min read
Overloaded game shows
TV game shows are blooming very strongly and overwhelming other types of programs. If several years ago, the number of game shows were only counted on the fingers, currently, there are over 40 big and small game show scattering all channels from the national to the local channels.
Game shows are richer and richer in content. They also focus more on entertainment, not merely knowledge playground - the most popular type in the early period. Among the games for dancers, models, designers, actors, comedians, chefs, entrepreneurs ... singing is the most popular and easy-to-make form.
Nearly half of the current TV shows are singing contests. The sudden growth of the number of singing contests comes from both producers and audiences. Firstly, singing contest is easy to organize, easy to recruit candidates and has simple format (singing and singing only), the broadcasting time is not much, but the profit is huge. It is said that the cost for a 30-second TV commercial appearing in The Voice Kids 2013 "consumed" around 280 million VND, approximately 12 thousand US dollars. Second, audience are likely to listen to music rather than watching other entertainment. Listening to music is a common habit of people in their free time. Therefore, shows for singing competition that attract audiences and run many seasons as The Voice, The Voice kid or other Vietnamese shows like Vietnam idol, Sao Mai… Singing competitions still exist until today while new programs are constantly coming in many forms. On the other hand, manufacturers continue to buy license for foreign competitions. As a result, this type of game show like is born massively.
A notable point of the current development of game shows is the extinction of pure Vietnamese game shows and poor-quality programs. About 10 years ago, knowledge gameshow was a popular genre, extremely popular and dominated the television channels. But gradually, the audience is infatuated and prefer to listen to music instead. The change of taste makes entertainment game show have a chance to rise up strongly and grow massively. In comparison, knowledge contests are now only "familiar faces" like Who is a millionaire, one vs one hundred ... though they actually past their golden age. Pure Vietnamese game shows are almost extinct as they no longer attractive to viewers. At this moment, people prefer to watch international shows. As a consequence, producers have to compete in the war of organizing a series of TV game show and launch unnumbered programs to run after profit.
Advantages
In fact, game shows have some benefits. First, they help connect people at the showing time. People gather at this time, watch together and discuss about them. Second, watching game shows help people release stress from working and studying. Third, format of game show can be applied into in-class activities. For example, with The Price is Right show, we can develop a similar activity, which is guessing the price of the item. The closest team wins. You can be under, but not a penny over. Another popular activity is Class crossword (in the Show: Crosswits). This game is as easy as its title. And this game is so popular in class especially language class. Last but not least, participants can get the big prize al well as being recognized among many people.
Whether advantages outweigh disadvantages?
Regarding drawbacks of game shows, because of produced countless game show, quality of the game show is sometimes not guaranteed. The shows aim to entertain the audience, and the contestants do not know how they will be edited and presented. There are some awkward moments make people feel embarrassed. For example, on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, some contestants are unable to answer questions in primary-school textbooks. So, when someone fails to answer a question, they are labelled as not being smarter than a 5th grader!
Or in The Dare Pong show (the Vietnamese version of the American show named Fear Pong), raised controversy among public.
Two contestants were asked to take off each other’s trousers using their own teeth, which angered some viewers due to the sensitive situation. It is maybe alright in western countries, but in Vietnam, people really respect traditional values, and see it seriously, thus, this show is unacceptable.
Reference:
ELT Planning n.d., 30 activities inspired by game shows, ELT Planning, viewed 5 May 2019,
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