One consequence of being ill and not having much energy is that I'm watching
FAR too much telly. One of my shameful secrets is that, despite my loathing
of a lot of trashy telly, I love the Weakest Link. There's something about
the form of this show that just works perfectly, and Anne Robinson is the
ideal hostess.
Anyway, they've been showing the US version of the show for the last couple
of weeks, and some major differences have come up, which may or may not cast
an interesting light on the differences of those on either side of the pond.
I present them as I see them, no judgments should be inferred!
(1) Money: the maximum possible prize in the UK is fairly piddling 10,000
pounds, with the average actual prize being around 2 grand, roughly 3
thousand bucks I think. In the US it's a cool million top prize, and the
actual awards can be between 50K and 80K. Still, it's not hard to see why:
our humble show is on the BBC, while the US is on some big commercial
channel. Stakes is high...
(2) Some of the blatant cabals that arise are astonishing to this innocent
Brit. A couple of days ago, three of the contestants had got together and
conspired to vote everyone else off, regardless of their performance, and
(presumably) share the spoils. I say chaps, that's just not cricket!
Wouldn't get our chaps over here getting up to such skulduggery, etc etc...
(3) When people on the UK show are asked their reasons for voting off
whomever they've nominated, they usually make an effort to sugar the pill, eg
"I'm afraid he had a bad round there" or "she hasn't been very good
throughout", sometimes adding "he's a lovely bloke but..." The US
contestants, well, they approach things differently, being generally pretty
brutal in dismissing their opponents.
(4) The biggest difference is when the people who've been voted off give
their comments - man are they bad losers! Even when they have been clearly
the worst player they mostly refuse to acknowledge it, and spit venom at
their vanquishers. Sometimes the Brits do that to, but I'd say that
generally the Brits are more gracious losers. Finally, I can say
unequivocally that the men are far worse losers than women!
What can it possibly mean? Probably not much, except that I've got too much
time on my hands right now...
Azeem in London
NP: Still the Pretenders - How Much Did You Get For Your Soul - this swipe at
celebrity advertising and black performers "selling out" (and particularly
Michael Jackson I would guess) still packs a punch.
