'Siapa Berani' still not bold enough

'Siapa Berani' still not bold enough

Siapa Berani

Hosts: Helmi Yahya, Alya Rohali

Indosiar

8 a.m. - 9 a.m. (weekdays)

JAKARTA (JP): Siapa Berani (Who's Brave) owes much to Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire, the UK show which became a phenomenon
in the U.S. with its offer of untold riches to those with a
better than average knowledge of trivia.

The local take is that contestants can be millionaires, but in
rupiah -- the tidy sum of Rp 7.5 million to be exact. While it
may be chicken feed compared to its American cousin, the amount
ranks up there as one of the larger payouts among local quiz
shows.

The process of vetting contestants who will make it to the
grand finale begins with hosts Helmi and Alya asking a series of
questions to five participating groups; this week they included
members of the Indonesian Navy, private companies, a radio
station and students from the Bandung Institute of Technology.
The highest scorers from each of the groups then play off against
each other to see who will advance to the final, with the big
money pot in store.

With the questions beginning at Rp 200,000, the finalist must
decide whether to move onto to the higher sum or call it a day.
Like in the foreign version of the show, outside help can be
sought from a chosen audience member (in the U.S. the finalist
can call someone for help).

At the end of the show viewers also have a chance to win as
the hosts choose a telephone number at random and ask a viewer a
simple general knowledge question.

Siapa Berani certainly looks the part of a big-time quiz show,
with an impressive set plus assorted graphics and bar charts
showing how the contestants have answered and their ranking in
the big scheme of things.

But in the suspense stakes, the show, in its second week on
air, fails to register a whimper.

It's a combination of factors, beginning with Helmi and Alya.
As a pairing, they look good on paper, with well-known producer
and entertainer manager Helmi guiding Alya, a former Miss
Indonesia and now a sought-after emcee.

But in this format, on live television and with each required
to ask alternating questions, they sometimes seem at cross
purposes. Their exchanges can be embarrassingly disjointed,
especially when Helmi, who is the coproducer of the show along
with child entertainer Joshua's father, gets carried away and
becomes a tad overbearing. The show would probably be better
served with one host with a commanding presence who would
generate excitement, and an evening time slot.

Yet they are also fighting an uphill battle, because it's hard
to keep viewers' attention over an hour-long quiz show. It would
work much better to keep it short and sweet, especially in the
final round; instead of starting at Rp 200,000 go straight to an
offer of Rp 1 million, and put the finalist on the clock.

As it is at the moment, the final round, which should be the
highlight of the show, suffers from a sorry lack of excitement.
It was not helped during the first few programs when Helmi seemed
to "guide" finalists when they were in danger of losing out at an
early stage in the question round.

On one day, a clearly perplexed finalist was all but directed
to give the right answer to a question about the
Malvinas/Falklands, and the next day an answer was "rectified" to
allow the competition to go on. It makes for a nice gesture so
finalists do not go home empty-handed, but it effectively kills
the whole purpose of a quiz show.

There also needs to be a little fine tuning of the question
session with viewers at the end of the show. Questions such as
"Who is the composer of the national anthem?" are so easy that
most fourth graders could give the answer.

It's still early days for Siapa Berani, but it has yet to live
up to its potential. The question now is who is brave enough to
put the program in order. (Bruce Emond)