University Challenge

Much Paxman interest in the press in the last few days, some of it relating to the “revelation” (to some, the “shocking revelation”) in this week’s Radio Times that Jeremy Paxman failed to get onto his college’s University Challenge team. This has actually been known at least since 1994, when it was The One Big Thing that the same newspapers getting excited about it now zoned in on from the publicity surrounding his appointment as host.

More interesting to me is this Q&A, which got chopped out of the version of the Radio Times interview supplied to the churnalists:

Does there have to be a woman on the team?
I don’t think so – it seems to be a predominantly male activity, quizzing. I think you will find that the form of words in the letter we send to the student body says they should try to choose a team that is representative of their institution. This is code for “we would like to see some girls on the team”.

Actually, I think this bothers TV producers more than it bothers viewers. I don’t particularly care whether the contestants are male, female or other and I’ve never understood this idea that viewers want to see people on TV like themselves. (If I ever see anyone on telly who’s like me, I’ll sue.) In fact, I was actually a bit relieved when the last female-captained team got knocked out in the semi-finals last year, simply because the media interest in winning female captains is really creepy. I mean, really really really creepy. It’s not the producers’ fault, but for some reason (and let’s face it, youth is a factor) that show just attracts the wrong sort of attention. Not that the contestants themselves are likely to have their heads turned by the media circus – heck, almost by definition they’re going to be smarter than that – but it’s not something I find pleasant to witness. Um… anyway, none of this changes the fact that it’s probably the best quiz show on television, and it’s back on Monday, so hurrah!

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