Yet it is also this fun and unique tapestry of mother tongues and distinctive South Asian personalities that MediaCorp offers to viewers of its six different local broadcasts: one in Tamil/Hindi, another in Malay, and two each in English and Mandarin Chinese. It is these latter two which are far and away the most popular for the conglomerate, in no small part because the Singapore government mandates that Chinese residents make up at least 75% of the population.
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| (L-R) Fong, Gow, and York, c2001 York |
Ashley Elaine York: Can you tell me about the shows you are currently researching and writing?
Evelyn Gow: Well, definitely, it's LADIES' NITE, the show I’ve been working on for four months. It’s a ninety-minute female variety show broadcast in Chinese on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on Channel U. It’s actually really popular with both women and men because we attract guys who want to better understand what their girlfriends are interested in.
This aim of the writers comes across in many aspects of the show's serial design, for it features two thirty-something female hosts--one married and one single--whose points of view and topics of interest mirror those of its broadly targeted viewers.
Gow: What I love most about working on this show is what we talk about, which is very challenging. That isn't the case with much of what's on television today.
Ironically, at my initial screening of an episode of the program at http://video.xin.msn.com/watch/video/tips-for-ladies-11-fudge/1bbxapqa8, I surmised the potential reasons for the show's success had for more to do with its simplicity and popular appeal than the complexity of either its theme or format. First of all, the hosts are beautiful and interesting women. Also, Gow and her fellow writers structure the episodes into three relatable components: fashion trends, healthy lifestyle, and a cooking segment, all of which appeal to both male and female fans of the show. Gow went on point to these elements as potential reasons for the show's tremendous success.
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| c2011 MediaCorp |
Gow: We target a wide range of viewers--we have to today. Even the guests are carefully divided between men and women. Still, the overarching aim of the show is to empower women to get the relationship advice they need for modern living.
Gow is confident in the show's success--not only because of its high ratings, but also because her friends regularly relay glowing reviews when they speak of it.
Gow: It seems we offer advice on day-to-day living that is easily relatable to a wide ranging audience—and that's our main aim at MediaCorp. We try to appeal to the masses.
Incidentally, this aim of MediaCorp ironically reflects a longstanding Western (specifically “middle American”) point of view in its programming strategy; yet it takes the degree of content restrictions and conservative appeal to a whole new level by politicizes the nature of every frame and each line of dialogue in every program it broadcasts.
The Singaporean Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, a powerful government body, oversees all content and strictly mandates that shows fit within the narrow range of conservative social mores promulgated by the long-standing government officials.
The global hit SEX AND THE CITY, for example, was banned from Singapore broadcast for five years after its series premiere. Finally, in the summer 2004, amid historically low birth rates and a global ranking of last among sexually active nations for the second year in a row, this ban was lifted--but not before the straight-laced censors at the Ministry tamed the series in myriad ways, including cutting out nudity and deleting sexually charged expletives in dialogue.
The shows' feminist themes undoubtedly chafe at the traditional role of women espoused by the conservative patriarchal mores of the Singaporean government as well as many other Asian nations. Still, I raised my concern over whether the broadcaster (in this case HBO Asia) had the right to perform what amounts to significant content revisions on copyrighted scripts owned by the original writers and producers/broadcasters of the show. Gow and Fong only admitted to being part of a Singapore that is currently in a state of flux. And, when I used the example of local magazines (owned and operated by MediaCorp Publishing) enticing would-be buyers with stories on the local sex trades, the virtues of committed partners seeking sex outside of marriage, and how-to tips on nontraditional sexual positions that keep one's lover coming back to the chamber bed night after night, Fong offered her cultural insight.
Lam Yen Fong: Well, a person has to buy a magazine to read it. It’s a choice--an adult choice. But every household has a television; so children can watch whatever is on. TV has to be more conservative than magazines--or even films.
There's also the time-honored tradition of protecting the bottom line to which all businesses--from MediaCorp to its Western counterparts--pay homage. HBO (the distributor of SEX AND THE CITY) is a subsidiary of Time Warner, which also owns CNN. It was this news arm of the conglomerate that ran repeated reports of the banning of this highly popular television show in Singapore until its Ministry caved under the pressure and started airing the series (albeit replete with edits) in 2004.
Gow: I can’t comment on that show or the situation at another network. What I can say is that local culture is changing. For example, although most Singaporean viewers speak Chinese, our young people are more interested in Taiwanese culture and its language and songs today. It’s all the rage in pop culture--to watch Taiwanese variety shows. They learn all of the lyrics to the popular songs that way. They're learning Taiwanese the same way we learned Hong Kong Cantonese years ago: from watching TV. So the cable stations broadcasting Taiwanese-language shows do divert younger viewers away from Mandarin Chinese broadcasts.
Fong: To some degree, we’re keeping this more educated, younger Singaporean segment interested by airing quite a lot of American shows during the 10 o’clock hour. Shows like CSI, HEROES, the new HAWAII FIVE-O, FRINGE, and many reality shows like AMAZING RACE, AMERICAN IDOL, SURVIVOR, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? and DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS! American shows are really well received by Singaporeans. But, we broadcast them in two ways. We redo most of them in Chinese--we produce and shoot them here. We then air the original American version on Channel 5 and the Singaporean [Mandarin Chinese] version on Channel 8, so we get viewers interested in both formats.
Fong: To some degree, we’re keeping this more educated, younger Singaporean segment interested by airing quite a lot of American shows during the 10 o’clock hour. Shows like CSI, HEROES, the new HAWAII FIVE-O, FRINGE, and many reality shows like AMAZING RACE, AMERICAN IDOL, SURVIVOR, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? and DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS! American shows are really well received by Singaporeans. But, we broadcast them in two ways. We redo most of them in Chinese--we produce and shoot them here. We then air the original American version on Channel 5 and the Singaporean [Mandarin Chinese] version on Channel 8, so we get viewers interested in both formats.
I asked Gow and Fong to comment on another programming strategy at MediaCorp, specifically how advertising has affected both the content of the shows and their stars.
Fong: Our most famous stars are women--always have been. So all of the top shows cater to them. They are paid more money and given more exposure by MediaCorp outlets than their male counterparts.
Gow: It’s partly because of advertising because, let’s face it, we’re all attracted to beautiful people. And advertising is all about beauty. Just over the last two years, I'd say, we're seeing that change, with more guys in adverts than before.
York: Is that because of the growing number of metrosexuals populating not only Singapore but Asia in general?
Gow: Partly, but also because men are a growing segment of our targeted viewership. Lady television stars are more so featured in commercials for household goods like furniture and appliances, and toiletries like sanitary products. But males are advertising their own products more than ever before. Advertisements prop up a star’s image, and they also prop up the shows they actors star in.
As to the age old question of whether it's content or advertising that's king, Fong summed it up beautifully.
As to the age old question of whether it's content or advertising that's king, Fong summed it up beautifully.
Fong: I keep hearing that content is king. But no one is paying the king!
In Singapore and select Asian regions, watch back episodes of LADIES' NITE on http://video.xin.msn.com/search/ladies'.
