Rush Hour

Two Mandarin-challenged speakers in China are the latest casualties of Shanghai Rush, the country's first reality TV game show featuring expatriates. A third team will get the axe tomorrow night leaving just seven teams to battle it out.

Will it be the homeless newlyweds, the hip singer and nerdy engineer, the fun-loving Brazilian couple or another team that makes it to the end? The winners will receive a one-year stay at the city's luxury Gemdale Greenworld Villas, a grand prize valued at 100,000 yuan.

"I think people are going to be amazed at who makes it to the last two episodes," said American director Eric Ransdell, who is steering the show to success on behalf of his production company Fly Films. "It's pretty unpredictable."

An estimated 44,000 Shanghai viewers tuned into the third episode last week to see the unexpected departure of Australian Matti Pyyvaara and Justin Rocamora of Spain.

The 20-somethings who arrived in Shanghai weeks before the taping to study Chinese were the second team ousted from the show after finishing last in the day's challenges, which ended at a boot camp in the city's Songjiang district.

"We were really devastated," said Rocamora, 23. "We thought boot camp would be our thing, but we had a string of bad luck."

"We did think we would make it past the third episode, but that's the game," said Pyyvaara, 21.

The boys followed the exit of American-born Chinese Marilyn Li, 23, and Melanie Der, 24, the first team to be kicked off the show. Better known as the M&Ms, the two best friends span out of control during a simulated race on Shanghai's F1 Grand Prix racetrack in Jiading district. This effectively sent them crashing out of China's answer to popular US show The Amazing Race.

"I just saw the wall coming, and there was nothing I could do about it," said Li. "I knew there was an emergency brake, but I couldn't think fast enough to use it."

Images of a visibly shaken Li emerging from the car's passenger seat while choking back tears have engendered the kind of drama and sympathetic audience response set to make Shanghai Rush, set in 11 of the city's districts, the forebear of future clones.

Interest in reality shows is growing in China as its TV audience becomes increasingly savvy and more interested in embracing current world trends.

Super Voice, a reality TV show in search of China's most talented singer, the country's take on American Idol, consumed the nation's attention during its second year in 2005. Now going strong, it returns to crown its fifth "champion" later this year.

But the new Shanghai Rush series represents "a very brave trial and totally different approach" to Chinese television programming, said Li Yu, deputy executive director of International Channel Shanghai (ICS). Chinese audiences still tend to favor slow-paced dramas and the market is saturated in this area.

Shanghai showdown

Designed to showcase Shanghai to the world in the year leading up to the Shanghai Expo, the 12-episode reality series launched by ICS under independent production company Fly Films is tapping into the growing internationalization of the city.

"For the world expo, we will have 10 million overseas people coming here, and we have to offer them lots of information services and entertainment tools, so why not have a TV show like this that shows the true life of (Shanghai) expats?" said Li.

What makes the show so special for contestants is that even veteran expats and local Chinese can re-experience the city they call home with fresh eyes, said 19-year-old Rebecca Miller from Britain. She has lived in Shanghai for roughly one year and is gunning for glory with her Shanghainese friend AJ Chen.

"Actually, the (game show's concept) was all so new to us that being from Shanghai wasn't really much of an advantage," said Miller.

Director Ransdell said part of the show's appeal to Chinese audiences is the way it shines a spotlight on the real lives of expats in modern-day China as they cope with the familiar and unfamiliar on a day-to-day basis.

"These contestants are the kind of people you meet at bars, or at a dinner party, or have a Chinese language class with," he said. "But you never see them freaking out in the back of a taxi trying to get to places in rush hour and dealing with Chinese people."

You do now.

"It's a big attraction for Chinese audiences who work with these people but don't realize what their lives are really like," he added.

A new dawn

The show was a huge undertaking. It took a crew of 80 working round the clock weeks to shoot, followed by months of editing and post-production work. The final cuts are still being hammered out.

Ransdell described the show as being at the vanguard of a new era of Western-infused Chinese programming.

"We've gotten to a point where young people are coming to Shanghai just because they hear it's cool," he said. "The show is a real reflection of where Shanghai is today. This is the first time we've seen it depicted as this and that makes it very unique."

Host Brian Yang, an American-born Chinese actor whose resume includes stints on American TV shows As the World Turns and The Tonight Show, said Shanghai Rush marks the start of a new phenomenon taking root in China.

"China now wants to position itself better through the media and TV to globalize its product. Shanghai Rush is just one example of this sort of media landscape growth," said the bilingual 35-year-old.

Barely into its fourth episode, ICS' most expensive show ever is already wooing international audiences and potential buyers. Producers are even mulling seasons two and three with an eye on expanding the franchise to other cities and regions, or even nationwide ("China Rush").

In the meantime, Shanghai residents can set their television sets to ICS on Sundays at 8 pm to find out which team gets the boot next.

Though Ransdell refused to hint at who was closest to the door, he said the final episode on July 19 will take place in "maybe the most amazing location in Shanghai".

For the M&Ms, Shanghai Rush was "a really nice end" to their year-and-a-half stay in the city, billed as one of the world's greatest and feted by international sports stars from F1 champ Lewis Hamilton to tennis ace Roger Federer as being among their favorite competition venues.

"Being on the show was just an amazing and eye-opening experience," said Der. "There were places we went to on the show that we didn't even know existed."

(China Daily 05/23/2009 page13)