Ant and Dec’s proletarian poke in the face
I can’t be the only one to have noticed the vogue for quiz shows designed to reproduce, repackage and reinforce existing class relations for primetime TV. The latest incarnation is Poker Face:
Each show will see six new contestants face five rounds of questions. Throughout the game they will know exactly how many they have right and how much money they are accumulating… However they have no idea how well their fellow contestants are actually faring… At the end of each round one person must leave the game.
The only way to get out with a fatter wallet is to fold and take whatever you’ve won so far. Or gamble, stay in the game, and hope you aren’t in last place (and sent home with nothing). Last man standing after five rounds takes home £50,000.
It’s televisual genius, of course. But the best frauds always are. Millionaire‘s reliance on hardcore general knowledge at least diluted the influence of class and gender: one can just know Eleanor of Aquitaine’s place in the Plantagenet jigsaw, though it sure helps if you’ve sojourned in Fontevraud L’Abbaye. Deal Or No Deal, meanwhile, can be turned on its head by an outrageous run of good or bad luck, and a working knowledge of Expected Value.
There’s no such fortune for proles having a punt at Poker Face. While the blurb-writers gush about “nerve” and “strategy” and “bluff”, the fact that you’re playing blind (and against each other) gives the fatal advantage to anyone who can afford to lose the cash dangled under his nose. Even the thick coating of Geordie cheeky-chappiedom can’t mask the stench of class dominance and gender intimidation. The simple suggestion to “remember the six kids” was enough to make one woman needlessly fold on tuesday. The law of diminishing returns is never on the side of the poor.
Four days in is a little early for statistical analysis, but once the data-set is large enough, you’ll find those at the right end of accent, gender and occupational power relations prospering, while the poor take what they can and get out. In this sense, it’s the perfect evening mirror to a day spent in the service of capital: Poker Face might be the best primetime opportunity for everyone to grab a chunk of pin money, but the big prize will always be reserved for those who deserve and need it least.
Never really thought of the class dimensions of quiz shows before. Surely the people who need the money least are the ones who enter the show the least.
Also, the majority of people who watch the shows are from the ‘proletariat.’ The TV executives know that in order to keep the show popular, they need to show the proletariat some of their ‘own kind’ winning often.
The game may be setup to allow the ruling classes to win, but I think the TV execs know the popularity of the show depends on allowing the common man to win through.
Interesting. I think it’s a little rough to say that the show’s “designed to reproduce, repackage and reinforce existing class relations”, though I agree with your argument that it will do that.
I haven’t seen the show – who told the woman to “remember the six kidsâ€Â? Do the competitors get to verbally bully each other – or was it one of Ant and Dec?
Dunno, Malcolm. Everyone seemed very happy when Judith Keppel won the pot on Millionaire. The fact that she was distantly royal didn’t appear to phase anyone.
Larry: worse than that. The contestants get to meet the day before, to get the baiting and bullying warmed up before they even appear on set (Antandec remain neutral and aloof). Funny how, this week anyway, it seems they’ve all (especially other women) been picking on the fat lass.
God post, really interesting thinking.
The one possible flaw is a presumption that the show isn’t rigged.
I live near Yorkshire TV’s studios, and so I know a few people who’ve whiled away an afternoon or three in studio audiences. One came back with quite a crush on Carol Vorderman, but that’s a whole other story.
One entered on The Price Is Right. They decided they wanted him to win – he was good looking, enthusiastic, much more telegenic than the other contestants.
So a bloke with a clipboard stood in the wings and gestured higher or lower to him as he ‘guessed’. And he won.
No point in letting the dull or ugly be on the screen for long, people will turn over, and lost ratings means lost ad revenue. It’s not about delivering shows to audiences, but about delivering audiences to advertisers.
Eeek, that should’ve started ‘good post’. Curse my sticky o key.
I preferred the ring of God. It pushed all the right buttons.