In the relatively long history of American Television Industry, traditionally Game Shows became an elaborate extension of commercials for product advertising. They offer suspense, good time, frenzied excitement, circus-like atmosphere, and a chance for the contestant to be a “hero”. They are the only format on television that draws its audience (both at home and in-studio) into such active participation. Aside from being entertaining and sometimes informative, Game Shows are the only format of television programming that offer contestants a chance to take home the bacon without a 40-hour work week.

But what are our own Persian Game Shows like? How well are they produced? Take, for example, the game show called mosabeghe-ye hafeh, the Game Show of the Week, aired every Thursday night. What is this show trying to do? What is the message the show trying to get across? Here are my assumptions: (1) They are trying to entertain the audience; and (2) due to the nature and type of the questions asked, they are trying to inform the audience. But unfortunately, the “entertainment” part of it gets ruined by the host of the show, Manouchehr Nowzari, because of the insensitive, sarcastic, and conceited remarks he proudly makes here and there addressing the contestants. I will discuss this issue in more details in the following lines down below.

As far as getting the people informed this show is doing a pretty good job in writing the type of questions they write. Almost all questions on history, literature, arts, and science are well researched and put together. But there are some shortcomings when one looks at the show in the can.

The most obvious shortcomings of the show have to do with its décor, the overall look of the show, and its host, Manouchehr Nowzari, who seems to still have a great deal to learn about showmanship and interaction with people, in this case, the contestants.

By the most advanced and internationally acclaimed standards of TV productions, Game Shows must have flashy openings, loud music, blinking lights, and a very colorful set—none of which exist in mosabeghe-ye hafteh. Moreover, a game show must have a handsome host who must be kind, nice, understanding, excitable, and energetic. Not only do we see no flashy openings, glittering lights, etc. etc. in the show; instead, we see a host whose traits are everything but what was mentioned above. He, on the contrary, is an unattractive, sarcastic, ill-mannered, and conceited host. He appears to have been impervious to learning and understanding human nature all his life. Needless to say that those hosts drag down the pace of the show, take the freshness away from the show, and disappoint both the audience at home and the contestants.

What do I mean by saying insensitive, sarcastic, ill-mannered, and conceited host? What I mean is this: This man is full of himself. He looks at everyone, the contestants, in the show with a smirk on his face. He likes to make people, in this case the contestants, feel embarrassed—and he does that every chance he gets. Each and every episode of the show is full of moments when he makes one or another contestant feel embarrassed by making statements to the effect that the contestant is not smart enough to know the answer, he/she only took a chance and guessed the right answer to the question. So what! Yes, he/she guessed the right answer to the question. Don’t we all guess every now and then about different things in our life? Doesn’t Manouchehr Nowzari himself guess about different things in his life when he is not quite sure about this or that issue or question? Why isn’t he comfortable about the fact that it is okay for the contestants to guess the right answer to a question and gain a point or two and consequently take the bacon home for free? He isn’t comfortable because, in my way of thinking, he is born and raised in a culture and society where things must be obtained or gained hard way—no easy way is allowed! He wants to see the contestants “sweat”, so to speak, before they gain or win something. That mentality can easily be seen in other realms in our society—like, for example, when you want to get a business license, to get a bank loan, to get hired somewhere or to register a car to your name. He doesn’t realize that the contestants who are for the most parts very, very young are impressionable and their ego or self-esteem gets “wounded or ruined”, so to speak, by the host’s attitude and humiliating comments. Moreover, he doesn’t realize that his damaging behavior on family members of the contestants who are watching the show at home. They don’t like to see their loved ones to get embarrassed before millions of TV audience. Regretfully, the young contestants are not experienced enough to handle properly the seemingly “dead-end” situation they are in. And that is because they unfortunately are not taught, due to our culture-specific, to speak up, to challenge or confront the conceited host by saying: Yes, I guessed the right answer to that question, so what? Why don’t you live with it! /

*Written in or around 2000. Parts of this review were published on www.academia.edu long ago.