A Tamil Jeopardy?

I guess Sun TV must have lost a lot more gold than they had anticipated, during the initial runs of Thanga Vettai. I caught a good section of the program yesterday and noticed a few changes since I saw it last.

For one, the questions had gotten a lot tougher. I mean, this was the program in which a college girl was asked the name of the sport that Andre Agassi played! But yesterday the questions ranged from what the birth country of Sigmund Freud was to who the first Prime Minister of Pakistan was (I got this one wrong). So while I started watching the program with the intention of seeing how silly the questions were, I ended up being involved and learning a little.

The program atleast seems to have the right role model. There was one round where the contestants were given a choice of nine categories to pick from and were then asked a question from that category. This segment definitely seems to have been inspired from Jeopardy, the hugely popular quiz program that airs in the US.

The other big change I noticed was the toning down of Ramya Krishnan's shouting. She was just as flashy as usual with her bright saree and abundant jewellery but seemed a lot less excited as she proclaimed whether the answers were right or wrong.

There were still some silly sections like the one where some images are screened with a story being narrated in the background and questions are then asked about both the images and the story. But overall, the combination of tougher questions and a less-loud Ramya made the program both more entertaining and informative than before. So its definitely on the right track.

Nice job Thanga Vettai!