TV review

Your chance

New quiz show gives viewers a chance to take home the prizes

Story by Nuttaya Muneerat

No longer is it enough for Thai quiz shows to offer contestants in the studio a chance to win. No, now the people at home want to play too. iTV is giving Thai quiz fans that chance with its new show The Vault or Joh Safe. The show is hosted by Miss Thailand 2001 Panadda Wongphudee and is divided into two parts: playing the game in the studio and playing the game at home.

In the studio, three people are brought in as contestants and another four people play the role of brokers. At the start of the game each contestant is given 10,000 baht. The host then asks them general knowledge questions. If they reply with the correct answer, they receive more money. However, if they don�t know the answer, they can ask any broker to help them. But here is the tricky part: brokers won�t help for free. The contestant and broker negotiate an amount of money for help answering that question.

The contestant with the most money makes it to the final round. There they must answer more questions. If they answer all of the questions correctly, the contestant has Joh Safe (punctured the show�s safe) and wins 1 million baht.

Audience�s time

The studio show isn�t much different from any other quiz show. Where the show differs is that throughout the programme viewers at home have chances to win.  Viewers can SMS the show their answer to each question. The first three people to SMS with the correct answer win 5,000 baht.

And if the studio finalist doesn�t win the final prize, a viewer at home gets the chance to win the top prize instead.

More than fun

Let me warn you, it will take more than fate to win a prize from home. The questions are quite broad and viewers will need knowledge from many different areas.

Unlike other quiz shows though, Joh Safe doesn�t just teach viewers a thing or two about trivia, it also gets them really excited. Each viewer trying to play has to be quick and must hurry to fire off each answer.

The studio part of the show is also fun, especially when the contestant is negotiating with the broker about the price for help.

Panadda, the beauty queen host, does a pretty good job. She can speak Thai clearly and correctly, which can�t be said about a lot of other TV programme hosts. But because she has to talk very quickly, she sometimes messes the question up, and this isn�t very professional.

Nevertheless, overall this is a fun show with a great new style. Check it out at 10:30 p.m. Mondays on iTV.

Vocabulary

contestant (n): a person who takes part in a contest
broker (n): a person who buys and sells things, for example, shares in a business, for other people
tricky (adj): difficult to do or deal with
puncture (v): to make a small hole in something; to get a small hole
fate (n): the power that is believed to control everything that happens and that cannot be stopped or changed
trivia (n): facts about many subjects that are used in a game to test people�s knowledge
curtsey (n): formal greeting made by a woman or girl in a dance or to an important person, by bending her knees with one foot in front of the other