Response to Boon Chan's Article on "Asia Spin-offs wins" !

“Asian spin-offs win” 

My Response

Boon Chan makes a good case as to why Asian versions of American reality shows are doing much better in Asia, as he was effective with his factual derivations and statistics. The quote “a lot of potential for reality TV in Asia” really summarizes the main intention of the article, effectively telling the reader that despite its tremendous success in the region, Asian spin-offs really have so much more to proffer.

After a through reading, I arrived at a rather bizarre but axiomatic conclusion: that this article was more of a bland report heavily seasoned with the voices of related people interviewed for comments. It was a “he thought”, “he added”, “he cited”, but an awkward absence of Boon Chan’s own perspective, which could have added a fresh breath of life and more fuel to the “fiery” narration going on.  It was strange how giving the microphone to too many people will in fact dilute the main goals, and distance the writer away from the reader subtly, yet inexorably.

To extend our lens and view it from a greater perimeter, I would say that this article reflects essentially two points, which are contradicting in nature, depending on the extent of your judgments and perspectives:

1.      Asians loves the concept of reality shows motivated by large cash and prizes! At least from what we can observe, with the remarkable success of the Asian spin-offs of The Amazing Race, The Contender and Idol shows, where prize money are worth more than a million dollars at best.

It is not too hard to see that Asians are rather motivated by prizes, or more importantly, the money that is awaiting them, should they win the reality show. For that, they are willing to put themselves in the line of trauma, humiliation, discomfort and other ungodly, unnatural behaviors, while several cameras are trained on them constantly, just to “keep it real “!

Or are they genuinely doing it for the love of their passion, the sake of instant glamour and fame, or even for the needy (some reality shows were of charitable nature)?

2.      Naysayers would also argue that what is a reality show without the Prizes? Where will the drama, action, suspense, thrilling moments, genuine excitement and angst be?

You see, there might be some sense in this perspective, as Reality Shows are all about the true, inexorable emotions that is experienced by the participants filmed on camera, the cloud-nine highs and the hell-deep lows, the true struggles, quarrels, misery and even celebrations that is not quite the same when portrayed by even the best Hollywood superstars!

We must admit that Reality shows have to be real, to find a universal trigger that will tug at the very hearts of each and every participants, regardless of where, how and who they are --- and that happens to be some really attractive Prizes.

That may be the only actual reason why we cannot eliminate Prizes totally from the equation just yet.

Despite the different facades it took over the years, from talent-time competitions to races around the globe, we can see why Prizes and reality shows are intrinsically bonded for eternity, and have perpetuated after all this time.

In any case, it would be difficult to pinpoint the ultimate motives and uncover true intentions in both the participants and the producers. If we tried, we would most probably get lost within the multifarious layers of camera lens, censorships (what each reality show chooses to show and what they do not) and the contentious storylines (what is real and what is fabricated).

Lets just enjoy the show! =)

Durwin