University Challenge: Paxman criticized for berating Tyszczuk Smith

Those of you who watched Monday's fascinating match will recall that, at one point, Tom Tyszczuk Smith of U.C.L. answered a history question with William I, when William III was what was sought. He probably just got muddled, but Paxo was not amused, and heavily berated him for his error (being 600 years out).

Earlier today, my Dad discovered an online article from the Telegraph claiming that Paxo has been severely criticized for his berating of Tyszczuk Smith, who many claim was rather nervous, and may not have taken Paxo's remarks very well. Others have popped up as well; one claimed that Mr Tyszczuk Smith spent the rest of the match staring at his desk, and not saying much. This looks to me to have been the case, though he did get one more starter afterwards.

Of course, Paxo is supposed to try and be amusing, but, sometimes, he may cross the line. His remarks may have been out of order, especially considering its not the sort of thing everyone knows everything about. Someone on Twitter pointed out that Paxo never berates people for making similar mistakes on science questions. Of course, Paxo's not science expert; a few series ago, he accidentally denied a couple of teams points on science questions due to them not giving the precise answer on his card (see Weaver's Week from mid 2007).

Twitter will usually react negatively to this sort of thing anyway. They thought Pietro Aronica's mistake from last week was hilarious, but this negative reaction from Paxo was criticized in a light-hearted way.

Of course, I am against writing disparaging things about game show contestants on a public forum where they are liable to read it, and be offended by it, but some quite happily do it, knowing they are quite safe behind a computer screen. They'd never do it in reality. Also, it's good to see the contestants themselves post on these forums, and many might get put off by this sort of thing (a few years ago, a Deal or No Deal contestant reacted badly to criticism of them made on the forum, and some users were banned as a result).

On the other hand, as someone on the (Deal or No Deal) forum once pointed out, if you agree to go on TV, you are throwing yourself open to criticism from all parties.

Of course, it is amusing to see someone get it oh so wrong, whether it be a bad decision on Deal, or a wrong answer on UC or Pointless, but berating them for doing so where they could read it and take offense is another matter.

This incident does raise a couple of questions about Paxo as a host, but he has a history of doing this (he is a lot worse with the celebs, for obvious reasons).

And it's not the first time the show has got this reaction for a negative reason. There was the infamous 'flag-gate' a couple of years back. And a female contestant who was subject of ridicule online due to her good looks.

And, of course, at the time when swerve questions were more prevalent, the show was under repeated attack, particularly in Weaver's Week.

In conclusion, this incident is just a minor incident, and will likely blow over quickly. But it does raise some interesting points, more of which I hope to cover another time.