No one wins anymore

I still haven't read a book yet this year. This is very bad of me and does need to be rectified. It doesn't help that  on top of that there is no decent television to watch at all at the moment. So instead here is an idea sort of related to television.

It is hard to think of a time when television isn't filled with quiz shows. They come in all varieties. The family quiz shows, the genuinely testing quiz shows and the ironic ones that are loosely based on a quiz show format.

And it seemed that no matter how poor you were on the show then you would be given something small like a pen set, a gimmicky product or even a paperweight. Nowadays you can get to the final of the show and still go home empty handed. Even comfortable, cosy BBC quiz Pointless requires you to beat all the other contestants and then face a final challenge before you even get a sniff at a prize.

The worst examples of this is Channel 4's Million Pound Drop where you face seven questions that you can rationally answer if you have some sense and can get to the last question with a decent amount of money for it to all come down to luck as you guess at the end.

Even more humiliatingly was the final of the sister show The Bank Job. All week contestants tried to out-quiz everyone else to get their place in the final. As more contestants got shoved to the side it led to two people negotiating if they should split the final sum of money between them or just take it all. Funnily enough the finalists said to one another that they wanted to do the good thing and share the money but then chose the box saying they wanted the money all to themselves. As the finalists were awkwardly standing next to one another making the final shots of the series, you could see the contestants who hadn't managed to strive to the end get a share of the money that the finalists had pretty much thrown away.

So essentially like the contestants themselves, quiz shows have become quite selfish. It isn't so much about rewarding contestants that do well, it is showing them off as entertainment and if you can embarrass them in the process that would be great too.

I mean on University Challenge you might feel ashamed but Jeremy Paxman pouring scorn on your answers is hardly likely to get you laughed at down the street. Whereas losing £1million on one question because you wrongly thought that Jedward was a fruit could.

Photo: Channel 4