Reality shows take the MBA way

Reality shows can get you anything. From a spouse to an MBA. And yes you heard it right. In Singapore, 16 contestants are vying for an MBA scholarship of S$25,000 (Singaporean Dollars) in The Kaplan MBA challenge. Dont confuse it with The Apprentice which was for people who wanted to start a business. This is for people who want to pursue an MBA degree, educational background and age irrespective.

The Kaplan MBA Challenge is Asias first reality show where the winner will get a scholarship for MBA after he proves himself every week in the weekly MBA projects given to the contestants. Another person who will also win a scholarship will be the lucky viewer who voted during the show. The show is running in its 7th week now and very soon we will come to know the lucky contestant who will take home the coveted money to pursue his or her business studies. To get into the show the contestants had to upload a video of 30 seconds on why should they be part of the show and then get the maximum votes to get selected. If you are going to win a scholarship for MBA it should not be difficult to market yourself right?

Will such a reality show be as popular in India as the some of the other ones like MTv Roadies or the recent Rakhi ka Swayamwar or Sach Ka Samana that have glued viewers to their TV sets? May be not; however, it will certainly enjoy huge amount of popularity amongst the large number of MBA aspirants and MBAs that we have in our country (which is large enough to give the show some decent TRPs). However, for such a show to be successful, its intellectual quotient should be high. Considering the target audience, its a reasonable enough condition. By intellectual quotient I mean the kind of projects given to the contestants. If they are of the quality which could be done by the average Joe on the streets, it will kill the prospects of the show. Since this particular realty show does not belong to the popular genre it will not be able to survive on bitching, bad language, politics or the scripted fights between judges.

Reality shows may not all be real and some of us may turn up our noses at them thinking they are not up to our intelligence levels. However, they have been the most successful mode of entertainment since a long time. Combining entertainment with testing the MBA grey skills of a would-be manager which in turn will give him money to pursue his business studies seems like a great idea to me. What do you think?