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Channel Seven plays the race card

While some shows embrace differences, others use it as a wedge.

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2013-02-19_2340I’ve often thought it would be fascinating to have a series of Big Brother with an Australian, New Zealander, Brit, German, Chinese, Italian, French, Indian, South African, Brazilian and various ethnicities.

….a kind of United Nations microcosm that would allow us to see just who embraces differences and who is divided by them.

But part of my brain tells me that no, this would be irresponsible television. In a hothouse such as Big Brother where perspective is easily lost, it could descend into World War 3 very quickly.

None of this appears to have crossed the minds of the producers of My Kitchen Rules.

While some shows embrace differences, others use it as a wedge. And that’s what’s going on here.

Producers should never have allowed a second team of Asian-Australians to be portrayed as villains, having already wrung every last bitchy comment from Jessie and Biswa, the ‘Spice Girls’ with Indian and Bangladeshi heritage.

Where is the balance, please?

All three Gatecrasher teams have entered the contest with audacious -even spiteful- comments about the resident teams. It’s clear they have been worded up to play hard, given they have been fast-tracked into the competition.

But only one team is going to be remembered. One team will attract the attention in social media: friends Ashlee Pham and Sophia Pou from Cabramatta.

True, this is a contest about heroes and villains, but why was it necessary to cast two more Asians as villains, when Seven attracted fantastic ratings for the wonderful Anh Does Vietnam last year?

MasterChef has shown us how the genre can deliver such positive messages in multicultural casting: Poh, Amina, Adam Liaw, Akuc. It even has people who can genuinely cook.

My Kitchen Rules panders to our ugly side and condones it with ratings instead of a moral conscience.

52 Responses

  1. Most commentators criticise reality shows for not being diverse enough. Now apparently the diversity is good but networks should be told what role the “diverse” characters should play and it cannot be anything resembling a villian. How ridiculous. These contestants gave 7 the content, they were not forced to say things they did not want to say and the Gatecrasher girls appeared to particularly like the villan label. Most people watching the show honestly couldn’t care about their ethnicity, just like they couldn’t care about the fact that Jake is obviously gay and the one of the girls has tattos up her arm. If anything Channel 7 and the MKR team should be applauded for bringing this diversity into our lounge rooms four nights a week, they are normalising these people and showing we all cook, we all eat and we are all the same breed of people essentially. My mother is a typical Seven viewer (over 55 and in no way would I call her progressive) and she has never mentioned the sexuality of contestants or their race. She judges each one on their personalities and how well they cook. This article is a beat up.

  2. Very well said!

    An interesting moment on A Current Affair last night – when interviewing Andrew Mercado he noted that whilst the use of another ethnic couple as villains is questionable, at least they are casting multiculturally.

    “Some reality shows would Never cast an Asian couple into the mix!” (Cough, cough, The Block…)

  3. This show *is* Big Brother.

    Also quite clear the producers love cutting together a contestants boastful comments and then have them brought back down to earth. No doubt this makes people at home feel superior.

    Not sure why people agree to be exploited in this way. Must be very hard to live down once you see it all go to air.

  4. I agree with JamesJ, I don’t think MKR or Channel 7 are playing the “race” card. If anything it’s showcasing the racist attitudes of some of its viewers who are insulting these teams on social media not based on their comments or behaviour in the competition, but based on their race.

  5. While I didn’t want to comment about race in regards to the Asian contestants on Mkr,not having watched since the first batch,J Bar’s post got my attention.How many indigenous couples have appeared?That’s not rhetorical,not having watched all of Mkr through the years,but I suspect none. To suggest that Mkr,or really any mainstream program,reflects multi-cultural Australia,ignores the crucial central question of race in this country…the marginalization,really the invisibility of the indigenous people.At least Asians get on Mkr..We can regard their inclusion as racial stereotyping,but they’re there.Other than maybe Nrl and Redfern Now,the indigenous are,for the most part,absent,invisible…shuffled off to a separate network,which can claim to achieving, on one particular day, 0% viewership.

  6. I disagree David, let us not forget the promos about Jake the Snake, and Lisa and Candice weren’t portrayed that nicely either.

    Just because Jessie and Biswa *happened* to be Indian, just because Sophie and Ashlee *happen* to be Asian, doesn’t mean it defines them. They as people are saying the things they’re saying, Sophie and Ashlee went in saying they weren’t there to make friends and said the things they said. I don’t think in this case affirmative action would solve anything here. I would hope that 7 are casting on the people themselves rather than their ethnic heritage.

  7. I have to disagree with you on this one, David. I think you are a being a little too PC here. While there are some racist rednecks out there, most rational people can still see it is just a TV show and race has got nothing to do with people being nice or nasty. I am Asian by the way.

  9. I have no problem with opinions that differ from mine. Life would be very dull if we all shared the same opinion. Respectful disagreement is welcome.

    To answer a few questions:
    -yes I would say the same if they were Asian males
    – yes I would say the same if it was on Nine. The Block has lacked diversity for years, and I gave MKR a higher review.
    – MasterChef has better cooking and production values, but the contestants aren’t engaging enough. MKR casts well, Shame it had to resort to this twice in one season.
    My 2c!

  10. I completely agree with you David and I am so glad that you have identified this issue. Let’s not forget that last year’s villain was the Eurasian princess.

  12. I am disapointed by you opinion david, you have always championed diversity, but this is a step backwards. diversity to me means equal representation and treatment whether that be for the better or worse. There is more than enough balance between the portrayal of the ethnic teams and the anglo, white bread contestants. jake & elle were promoted as “jake the snake”. lisa & candice were “whiches from the west” jenna&joanna, the abalone divers, the harvey bay team, Josh&ali and natassia have all had nasty periods. and they were all anglo. last night i thought lisa and stefano came across as the biggest villains scoring a 1. Ashlee & sophia showed that despite their mouth were still willing to play fair with their scoring.

  13. This is not entirely accurate – the spice girls were hardly ‘villains’, more annoyingly naive. If anything, the two WA girls were far more venemous and no enthicity there (or culture at all).

    While the two Asian gategrashers were tough last night, in the end, they scored the instant restaurant highly compared to the other pre-existing teams.

    Drawing a very long bow inferring that Seven is playing a race card.

  15. I think they’re hired plants playing roles.

    That said, I don’t mind that they’re asian, I see them as just not very nice Australians and there seem to be more and more of not very nice Australians around if reality TV is to be believed.

  17. Let’s be fair now – while Jessie and Bisma were portrayed as villains, so were Lisa and Candice, and they aren’t exactly ‘asian’.
    While editing can play a big role in these shows, no one is forcing any of the contestants to be so rude and awful about other people’s food. Are you suggesting they edit out any rude comments uttered by minorities? And leave in the ones said by the other contestants?

    Because the viewers can’t taste the food, they want to see the contestants being upfront about whose food is good and whose is bad. That’s why Masterchef is unappealing this season – the food is pretty, and the viewers can’t tell if the taste of some fancy pants bisque is off, and if the judges are just being nice about all the food, there’s no sense of drama and competition. Sure, MKR gets nasty sometimes, but no one forced the Spice Girls to be so absurdly fussy about their vegetables. No one forced Lisa and Candice to say their awful things either – fair’s fair I say.

  18. Great article David, you’ve hit the nail on the head, where’s the balance in the story telling and now as you’ve pointed out, they’ve gone too far. I’ve had enough of My Kitchen Rules. It should be retitled Bitchin’ Rules, as that’s the driver for this show.

    Remember when we first saw Masterchef and how it embraced cultural heritage, judges encouraging and mentoring contestants, contestants encouraging each other and not one bitchy comment. How refreshing it was and still is…..and truly aspirational TV.

  20. Great article David!
    I don’t watch the show but the over promotion and definite characterisation of ‘reality’ contestants doesn’t appeal and as you stated exacerbates people who already have race prejudices.

  21. I think your idea for Big Brother is great, and yes letting it descend into world war 3 would be brilliant. WW3 with no nuclear weapons, suits me. As for Asians being portrayed as villains, well in these type of crappy reality shows, I always want the villains to win, I really like them….keep bitching girls

  22. I did think was a strange call given the spice girls. You have to take your hat off to the producers, editors and casting of this show. It is marketed as a reality show but I believe it is the best drama on TV at the moment. Hence the ratings.

  23. I don’t want to comment on the race card,cause I only watched till the first elimination..enjoyed it,soon became bored,but I think the characterization of Jessie and Biswa as villains goes to a place not intended by the show.They were,if anything,comedic villains…kinda like Jack Lemon in The Great Race…caricatures but likable..all they were missing were black hats and moustaches to twirl.I enjoyed them.. thought they were pretty funny.Mkr is just aspirational fluff.. I don’t read too much into it.

  24. Fully agree David, MKR rules is not a cooking show as such but backstabbing, inane comments etc of the contestants who need to cook to justify it as a cooking show, it could be My Pool Cleaning Rules, My House Cleaning rules, My Baby Sitting Rules etc etc, as the contestants will bitch and complain about these just as they do with the cooking,,the reason why MC does not rate is the exact opposite…

  25. Thank you for this story David.
    Whilst print media have been quick to capitlise on the “villian” label, none have pondered the effect in particular it has on social media and the general viewing public. I have seen racist “memes” and such on social media thinly disguised as “humour” due to MKR. It is disappointing that commercial TV generally doesn’t use people of different backgrounds more to inform and educate instead of using them as a cheap ratings grab. MKR could indeed learn a lot from Masterchef in that aspect.

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