EVEN OUT-and-out game shows that cater to a more upscale audience do not offer much beyond the lure of winning cash. In the now defunct “Break The Bank” in the youth-oriented Studio 23, for instance, contestants were first asked a question that had a giveaway answer before they could pick a briefcase that could contain their prize. They were made to choose between the contents of the briefcase or the cash amount offered by the banker. The catch was while the banker’s offer was a sure thing, the briefcase could contain anywhere from P1 to P100,000.

Some TV producers are aware that game shows can foster unrealistic hopes. “Game shows are like prayers, they keep you hoping and hoping, they deflect us from looking into the real issue of unemployment,” says one producer who declines to be named.

	CLINICAL psychologist Dr. Violeta "Doc Bolet" Bautista. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

Tape Inc.’s Ferre also says that TV producers have a moral responsibility to discourage contestants from believing that winning on a game show is the answer to poverty. She says that this is why “Eat Bulaga’s hosts always ask contestants what their occupation is. “What we want to convey is, you have work, and you work hard,” she says. “We hope (the money you win) helps. If you drive a jeepney, we hope that you don’t stop working but rather, that you’re able to own your own jeep.”

Ferre says that “Eat Bulaga's” primary purpose is not to give away money, but to entertain its viewers. “Eighty-seven-point-nine plus plus Filipinos are entertained, only one wins,” she says. “The winner only becomes a medium for ordinary people to empathize.”

Marilou Almaden, ABS-CBN’s business unit head in charge of game shows, says that for some viewers, watching such programs is more about the thrill of trying to trump the contestant, rather the prizes.

Psychologist Bautista, for her part, says that for the poor, these shows can also serve as coping mechanisms. She notes, “For a moment you forget about the difficulties of life, for a moment you have hope. And then of course the entertainment that goes with it is another way by which you forget. So you're able to move on to the next day, because you've had a gulp of fun and excitement.”

Almaden says that despite all the criticisms hurled their way, she is proud to be producing game shows. “A lot of people say that we're giving false hopes to people,” she says. “But I want to see it the other way, that there are people whom we actually help, in the small way that we can.”

She says that she cries whenever she sees the joy etched on winners' faces. “In my group's little way,” says Almaden, “wow, we can actually make dreams come true.”