Domesticating the Western format on Russian TV: Subversive glocalisation in the game show Pole Chudes (The field of Miracles)

Abstract

Combining semiotic strategies and audience research, this contribution focuses on Pole chudes (Field of Miracles), the Russian adaptation of the popular television format Wheel of Fortune, to analyse the specific case of subversive glocalisation. A comparison of Pole chudes with other adaptations reveals the tensions characteristic uniquely of post-Soviet space, such as those between the national and the local under the influence of the global, between the centre and the periphery; between commercial/capitalist and traditional/folk practices, and between the collective and the individual. Focus group research shows that Pole chudes splits viewers by class, location and age, with the metropolitan intelligentsia at one end of the spectrum and the narod in the provinces at the other. In addition, it is argued that Pole chudes represents a case of post-Soviet identity construction in which top-to-bottom tendencies, in particular nation building, merge with bottom-to-top ones, such as local and folk practices.

Notes

Puchkov is a popular translator of pirated western films. He became known for his spoof interpretations of the Hollywood film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Unlike Puchkov's ‘alternative' interpretations, Pole chudes has acquired an official status of a national TV show which is used to promote official ideology.

Such perceptions were confirmed by our focus group interviews (the details of which are given in the section on focus group methodology below). For example, one Moscow professional told us that her daughter and other students of a theatre institute were auditioned for several parts in Okna. During my interviews in Moscow in 2006, I also met a female journalist who writes scripts for Chas suda.

List'ev (10 May 1956 – 1 March 1995) was a Russian journalist and head of the ORT TV Channel (now Channel One in Russia).

All the Pole programmes quoted in this article were recorded on Channel One Vsemirnaya set' as broadcast in the UK. The dates are noted in brackets in the text.

In Skomvand's analysis of Wheel, the talk phase includes brief personal stories and remarks, which, in my analysis, I have separated into a ritual phase in Pole.

During the period of this study Pole promoted one particular sponsor, the juice company Moya sem'ya (My Family) over others; advertisements for the juice were built into the body of the programme.

International Women's Day has lost its original meaning as the day of solidarity of women all over the world in Soviet times. For decades it has been a holiday to celebrate femininity and confirm gender stereotypes. In translation into Western mode, it has become a strange mix of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.

Pravitel'stvo Moskvy budet snimat' vospituyushchie fil'my', available at: http://www.rol.ru/news/art/kino/02/01/25_006.htm, 25 January 2002, accessed 2 October 2002. For further information about the Zvezda channel see the website available at: http://www.tvzvezda.ru/tv/, last accessed 19 June 2007. For further information about Russia Today see the website available at: http://www.russiatoday.ru, last accessed 19 June 2007. For further information about the Moscow government programme see the website available at: http://www.mos.ru/cgi-bin/pbl_web?vid=2&osn_id=0&id_rub=2062&news_unom=16712, last accessed 19 June 2007.

Also see the articles by Sarah Oates and Jeremy Morris in this collection.

By ‘odessit’, Yakubovich is refering to the myth about the city of Odessa, famous for its special sense of humour. He is a former member of KVN, that is Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh (The Club of the Merry and Quick-Witted), which manifested itself at best in the presentations of the KVN team from the University of Odessa. Yakubovich also writes humorous ‘estrada monologues’ and short stories in which he mourns Soviet culture through an iconic and idealised view of Odessa. In a similar fashion he attempts to reconstruct the ‘country of his youth’ in the studio of Pole.

‘Rezul'taty issledovanii, Reitingi SMI: Televidenie’, available at: http://www.tns-global.ru/rus/data/ratings/tv/russia/top_100/_20030804_20030810/index.wbp, accessed 17 July 2007.

‘Rezul'taty issledovanii, Reitingi SMI: Televidenie’, available at: http://www.tns-global.ru/rus/data/ratings/tv/russia/top_100/_20040202_20040208/index.wbp, accessed 17 July 2007.

‘Rezul'taty issledovanii, Reitingi SMI: Televidenie’, available at: http://www.tns-global.ru/rus/data/ratings/tv/moscow/top_100/_20040202_20040208/index.wbp, accessed 17 July 2007.

‘Rezul'taty issledovanii, Reitingi SMI: Televidenie’, available at: http://www.tns-global.ru/rus/data/ratings/tv/russia/top_100/_20060213_20060219/index.wbp, accessed 17 July 2007.

See footnote 12.

Goluboi ogonek (Blue Light) is a Soviet and post-Soviet variety show which consists of music, humour and other numbers. It has usually been broadcast on New Year's Eve.

Currently the programme website does not mention how to apply to become a contestant in the show. See http://www.vid.ru/programs/default.htm, accessed 2 October 2007.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natalia Rulyova

This piece is a result of my work on the AHRC-funded project Post-Soviet Television Culture headed by Professor Stephen Hutchings. I would like to thank Professor Hutchings and AHRC for making this project possible.