Hey! Spring of Trivia
Hey! Spring of Trivia (Japanese: トリビアの泉, Toribia-no izumi) is a Japanese television show on Fuji TV and currently the show with the highest audience ratings in Japan. It runs also as a dubbed version on the US-TV channel Spike TV. Unlike Spike TV's other Japanese show MXC, English translations are authentic translations of the original Japanese utterances and texts.
Synopsis
A number of trivia that are sent in by viewers are presented in short video-clips to a celebrity panel of five judges vote on how interesting it is by pushing a so-called "hey!-button" (Japanese: へぇ~ボタン; Hē-botan) every time they are astonished. The hey-button emits a short "hey"-sound every time pushed. "Hey" (Japanese: へぇ; Hē) is the Japanese interjection somebody says when genuinely surprised by something, equivalent to a mix of English interjections "For real?" and "Wow!". The total of all "Heys" collected during the presentation of the trivia is then used as the indicator for the degree of surprise of this trivia. For every "Hey" a piece a trivia gets, the trivia submitter receives 100 yen (this aspect is left out of the American broadcast). For example, a trivia that receives 97 Heys, the trivia submitter will get 9700 yen.
Details Trivia so far has included exploding erasers, caffeine-induced spiders, a record of farts, and many other bizarre trivia. At the end of the show, there is a segment called "Seed of Trivia" (Japanese トリビアの種; Toribia-no-tane). Weird ideas are sent in by viewers (Japan only) and crew of the show 'go to great lengths to answer them'. "Chairman Tamori" (played by Kazuyoshi Morita) evaluates the Seed of Trivia by pulling a lever. The Seed of Trivia's grade is shown as a flower. "Full bloom" (Japanese 満開; Mankai) is the highest of grades. At the end of the show, host Norito Yashima gives out "The Golden Brain" (Japanese: 金の脳; Kin-no-nō), a brain shaped trophy that has a melon bread inside that is in the shape of a brain, to the sender of the highest rated trivia. Also, co-host Katsumi Takahashi gives out "The Silver Brain" (Japanese: 銀の脳; Gin-no-nō), a smaller version of The Golden Brain with the same shape, but with no melon bread, to the sender of his favorite trivia. Trivia has been running in Japan since early 2003, first as a low-budget program after midnight (with initially much more obscene and sexual trivia than afterwards). Its increasing cult status made Fuji TV shift the broadcast time to prime time from autumn 2003. Now, Trivia can be seen every Wednesday from 21 to 22.
English Version Spike TV apparently plans to produce an American version of "Trivia". Broadcast is supposed to start from april 2005.
External links Spike TV website for "Hey! Spring of Trivia"Fuji TV website for "Trivia no Izumi"
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