Russian television scores with hot new game show

MOSCOW–The program has only been on the air for three weeks, but Russian citizens from Voronezh to Srednekolymsk are already swept up in the thrill of the nation’s biggest runaway-hit game show, ‘Who Wants To Eat A Meal?’

Hosted by popular Russian TV personality Anatoly Ivaskevich, ‘Who Wants To Eat A Meal?’ gives hungry contestants the chance to answer general-knowledge questions to win food items.

Russian citizens are already well acquainted with the show’s format: Every night at 8, cameras circle a sumptuous banquet table as announcer Leonid Pustovoitenko asks the studio audience, “Who… wants… to eat a meal?” Bayonet-wielding members of the Russian army then move in to protect the table from rioting audience members, who often storm the set with crude handmade weapons in a desperate attempt to seize a beet.

Though no contestant has yet won the top prize of a slice of boiled beef, an uncooked red potato and a scrap of bread, viewers have thrilled to the awarding of lesser prizes to contestants finishing partway up the prize ladder. Last Friday’s installment drew blockbuster ratings as Nikolai Puchin, a 33-year-old Novokuznetsk-area peasant, walked away with a chicken bone after correctly identifying Sergei Eisenstein as the director of ‘The Battleship Potemkin.’