Sophist’s choice

It was touch and go whether the Vodafone Malta Television Awards would degenerate into yet another Viva l-Lejber vs Olé Nazzjonalisti embarrassment, given that PBS was intimating it would not take part unless certain regulations were modified to provide for all possible outcomes.

I took this to mean that the recommended amendments would be as watertight as possible – or that they would prevent any station becoming Station of the Year by default.

Indeed, the prognosis is that TVM is more than likely not going to take part in the awards, unless something happens in the nick of time.

I am reliably informed that PBS suggested a number of changes, when consulted after the new, improved awards regulations were announced.

These included a “a level playing field”, which, inter alia, intimated that the Station of the Year award would go to the one that won the most awards for programmes, and not for individuals.

In the past, we have seen how honours won by actors in drama series had a great bearing on the final results. Indeed, friends of mine who spend most of their afternoons watching omnibus recordings of Deċeduti, Salib It-Toroq and KC, insist TVM could win Station of the Year hands down solely on the strength of these series.

A motoring category and awards for best male and best female newscaster, and/or gender-neutral awards for presenters were also mooted, but not all these suggestions can be met.

The fashion programme award proposal was shelved for next year. In any case, I would say fashion fits into the Lifestyle category – or rather, it would fit if most of the presenters did not make it a point to be the centre of attraction, sitting wide and holding court, and placing their guests on seating such that they have to shift their bodies to be on camera properly.

Sources say TVM was pushing for a realistic shift of the deadline for submissions (since producers were told not to prepare packages, given that it had been uncertain as to whether PBS would be taking part in this event, and obviously not all production houses were savvy enough to go with the ‘just in case we do take part’ scenario).

Others told me the negotiations for compromise are not through yet, because of the aforementioned fashion programme award impasse.

I wish someone would explain to me, in words of one syllable, why motoring and cookery are considered ‘lifestyle’, whereas fashion is not. Print lifestyle magazines cover all the aforementioned topics. People keep complaining that the awards ceremony is interminable, yet they want categories added. The mind boggles.

This year, the contestants for Miss World were given a hand in choosing the finalists. In the same way, I would say that in an ideal world most of the judges should be peers of the contestants. Here, however, this would bring about an avalanche of criticism involving the terms nepotism, consultants, and friends-of-friends.

I would have liked all the parties concerned to start unknotting this tangled web the minute last year’s results were announced, rather than allowing the argumentation to reach its climax immediately before the new awards are announced. What kept them?

Could it be, perish the thought, that there are people who would prefer that the awards not be held, and they are trying to split hairs or at least pull strings?

There is a trend of thought that says TVM, just because it is the ‘station of the nation’, ought never to be compared to any station, in any category. This would be true if TVM were near enough to perfect. Just because TVM is the state broadcaster, it does not mean it does not have to face competition.

After all, albeit in another context (the Maltasong contest), Anton Attard said competition is healthy, and even argued that introductions of foreigners into the ring would push local artistes to try harder. I did not agree with this statement, but I did think it would help dilute the lists from the usual copy-and-paste listings of the same names.

In fact, I had talked about this with Ira Losco, the oriflamme of the new generation of Maltese singers. She said the song-writing has to compare well with what makes the international charts:

“If the Eurovision Song Contest wants to be taken seriously by the music industry, and if it actually wants any of its winners to have a life following their three minutes on that stage, it is that simple. The German entry last year, for instance, was strong and catchy. It made it onto dance-floors as a re-mix, and it topped many charts around the world.

“That’s not to say I liked it in particular; I’m merely pointing out that it was a good song, commercially speaking. So really, unless the song writers are of a certain calibre and can produce a good pop tune suitable for Eurovision, I don’t see why it makes a difference what nationality anyone is.”

• Striscia la Notizia (Canale 5) yet again exhibited righteous indignation over something. This time, it was not a megabucks hospital never used, in wrack and ruin, or a pillar of society caught in flagrante delicto with a lover. What set them off was a public notice upon which was written the word ‘praivasi’ rather than ‘privacy’.

I wonder what they would have done had they been subjected to words and phrases picked at random from local media, such as ‘Bilgariżi’; ‘zunnariji’ (sic) ‘jew karrotti’ (is there a choice?); ‘kulħadd huwa merħba’, and so forth.

television@timesofmalta.com