'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)