Students Participate in Game Show

Harvard students flexed their brain power last night in the Winthrop Junior Common Room, pondering responses to a variety of topics including "names of superheroes with the word 'man' in it," and "ugliest buildings on campus."

They were participating in Harvard-Radcliffe Television's newest game show, "Survey Says," which is based on the popular television series, "Family Feud."

Contestants in the game try to predict top student responses to specific survey questions.

The show, which will be aired in a few weeks, is hosted by Mandel N. Ilagan'99.

Ilagan said he works to keep the atmosphere fun and fast-paced, and the audience loved it.

During the taping, only the second in what Ilagan hopes will be a series of shows, members of the audience danced along to the peppy theme song, shouted out answers to some of the questions and cheered loudly for their favorite teams.

"It's a party in here!" exclaimed Ilagan during one particularly wild moment.

Last night's show ran for four rounds and pitted teams from Stoughton Hall and Winthrop House.

The Winthrop team took an early lead. But Stoughton eventually came back and sealed the win, 413-164, after Winthrop failed to come up with one of the top eight responses in the category of "least favorite lecture halls."

The Stoughton team burst into cheers upon hearing that their win earned them breakfast in bed and a pizza party for 20 of their friends, courtesy of Harvard Dining Services.

Loretta E. Kim'99, a member of the Stoughton team, breathlessly exclaimed that playing the game "was very exciting and involved a lot of adrenaline."

The losing Winthrop team, however was less enthusiastic. One member, Christina A. Shenouda'97, complained that the surveys used in the game "were skewed with misconceptions."

Her teammate, Jeremy L. Lizt'97 wondered, "Who the hell is Blankman?"

Blankman was listed as one of the top responses to "superheroes with the word 'man' in their names."

Despite the complaints, however, the two teams seemed to enjoy the show, with both sides frequently bursting into laughter.