The Arena (Singapore TV series)
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The Arena is a debate-style television show produced by Mediacorp Channel 5 in Singapore. It was broadcast from January-March 2007, and ran for 11 episodes. In each episode, teams from two secondary schools in Singapore debated against each other. The topic for debate was different for each episode. Ten schools competed in the first round, from which the five winning teams and the best-scoring losing team progressed to the quarter-finals. The semi-finals were contested by the three winners and the best-scoring losing team from the quarter-finals. In the Grand Final, telecast on 27 March 2007, the team from the United World College of South East Asia defeated the team from Hwa Chong Institution to win the competition.
The show was hosted by popular Singapore TV personality Adrian Pang.
Contents |
[edit] Progress of teams
Ten schools qualified for the televised rounds of the competition.
| School | Round One | Quarter-Finals | Semi-Finals | Grand Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United World College of South East Asia | Won | Won | Won | Won |
| Hwa Chong Institution | Won | Wildcard | Won | Lost |
| Loyang Secondary School | Won | Won | Lost | --- |
| Raffles Institution | Wildcard | Won | Lost | --- |
| Methodist Girls' School | Won | Lost | --- | --- |
| Xinmin Secondary School | Won | Lost | --- | --- |
| CHIJ Katong Convent | Lost | --- | --- | --- |
| CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School | Lost | --- | --- | --- |
| Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School | Lost | --- | --- | --- |
| Nanyang Girls' High School | Lost | --- | --- | --- |
Note: In both Round One and the Quarter-Finals, the highest-scoring losing team also advanced to the next round as a 'Wildcard'.
[edit] Topics
| # | Airdate | Topic | Competing Schools |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 January 2007 | Hey Good Looking, You're a Winner! – Good looks triumph over effort. | Loyang Secondary School vs Raffles Institution (LYSS wins 51-49) |
| 2 | 16 January 2007 | Selfish? Yes We Are! – Today's youth are motivated by self-centeredness alone. | Methodist Girls' School vs CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School (MGS wins 72-28) |
| 3 | 30 January 2007 | Don't Try to be Funny! – Our society does not encourage a sense of humour. | Xinmin Secondary School vs Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School (XMS wins 57-43) |
| 4 | 6 February 2007 | Singapore, a Self-Service Nation! – Local service standards have a long way to go. | United World College of South East Asia vs Nanyang Girls' High School (UWC wins 74-26) |
| 5 | 13 February 2007 | Teach First, Sex Later! – Protecting our youth from sex now causes social problems later. | Hwa Chong Institution vs CHIJ Katong Convent (HCI wins 78-22) |
| 6 | 20 February 2007 | To Hide or Not to Hide? – Internet anonymity is bad for us all. | Xinmin Secondary School vs Loyang Secondary School (LYSS wins 55-45) |
| 7 | 27 February 2007 | Where Do We Stand? – Singapore's youth are politically apathetic. | Raffles Institution vs Hwa Chong Institution (RI wins 54-46) |
| 8 | 6 March 2007 | Mother Knows Best – Mothers should stay at home to raise children. | United World College of South East Asia vs Methodist Girls' School (UWC wins 80-20) |
| 9 | 13 March 2007 | The Pressing Issue – Bloggers are becoming more influential than journalists. | Loyang Secondary School vs Hwa Chong Institution (HCI wins 89-11) |
| 10 | 20 March 2007 | First Among Equals – Singapore's education system breeds elitism. | Raffles Institution vs United World College of South East Asia (UWC wins 94-6) |
| 11 | 27 March 2007 | Modern Softies – Youth today are less prepared for future challenges than their parents' generation. | Hwa Chong Institution vs United World College of South East Asia (UWC wins 78-22) |
[edit] Debate format
The format of debates for The Arena was created specially for the show and differed from other competitive debate formats.
Each team had three speakers. The first speaker on each team spoke for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, the second speaker for 4 minutes, and the third speaker for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Each set of two speeches was considered to be one 'Round' within the debate, and each 'Round' was judged separately. Speakers stood in the middle of the room, and spoke directly to one opponent from the other team (rather than facing to the audience and the judges as in most other debate formats). This opponent was allowed interrupt the speech with points of information (POIs – a feature of both the World Schools style and British Parliamentary style of debating). However unlike other debate formats which use POIs, the speaker was not allowed to decline to hear a point when it was offered. Each team had a 1 minute and 30 second POI 'Rebuttal Bank', which they could use over the course of the three speeches by the other team. In between the second and third speeches of the two teams, there was an additional 3 minute 'Rebuttal Round' involving all 6 debaters in a series of short arguments and immediate responses on the topic.
Each episode was judged by four judges. Each judge decided which team they thought has won each 'Round' within the debate, and the team with the most points at the end was declared the winner.
[edit] Judges
Each epsiode was judged by three regular judges and one guest judge. The regular judges on the show were:
- K.K. Seet – Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore
- Eunice Olsen – Nominated Member of Parliament and former Miss Singapore Universe
- Ashraf Safdar – Journalist from the Today newspaper and member of the Debate Association Singapore Executive Commitee
Guest judges for the show included Singapore celebrities like Tan Kheng Hua and Daisy Irani. The guest judge for the final (and the only guest judge to appear on the show twice) was Viswa Sadasivan, the Chairman of the Political Development Feedback Group of Singapore's Feedback Unit, who is also the Chairman of the Right Angle Group and a former TV presenter.
For the preliminary selection rounds of the show (which were not televised), the teams were also judged by Geetha Creffield (ex-President of Debate Association Singapore and former coach of the Singapore national schools debating team) and Mark Gabriel (Secretary of the World Schools Debating Council and Tournament Director of the Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships).
