Pasapalabra - Spanish TV Show
This is a suggestion for those interested in Spanish language TV, and also a question (at the bottom).
A few days ago I stumbled upon this show that airs in Spain called Pasapalabra (pasa palabra - roughly, next word). It's apparently based on The Alphabet Show in England (never seen it), and since it's inception has become a huge hit in Spain. It's sort of like Spain's Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, except Pasapalabra is entirely different in structure.
I've watched a few episodes and have decided I totally love it. I barely understand what they're saying, but it doesn't matter because it's a ton of fun. ALSO, I imagine it's a great learning tool. The host speaks crazy fast, but all the various things the contestants have to do involve words, matching them, coming up with them, etc., and that is somewhat slower. Not only are you able to hear them pronounce the words, but they appear on the screen so you can see them spelled out. They also sometimes have themes from things native English speakers (and clearly Spanish speakers) will be familiar with. For instance, on an episode I watched yesterday, one of the topics was "Moby Dick".
A synopsis:
There are two contestants who compete for money, and each are aided by 2 celebrities, it seems one male and one female. Each team sits opposite each other and compete in rounds with various word puzzles to earn seconds. All these seconds are added to a final time total to be used in the final round, where the two contestants have to guess a word for each letter of the alphabet in the time they have accrued (in the episodes I've seen, about a minute and thirty seconds, if you're good). If the contestant doesn't know the word they can skip by saying "pasa palabra" and then it will be the opponents turn. You want to guess as many correct as possible, and definitely more than your opponent. If you win, you come back for the next episode. And like Jeopardy, the pot get's really freaking big.
The rounds vary, with themes and various word guessing games. My favorite round is the second one, where they have to guess a song (some of these are in English, so you'll feel smart for knowing the answer on a Spanish TV show 
). It's usually pretty goofy, with the points to be earned dropping as the host gives more clues, and usually the person who guesses it has to sing part of it.
Now, this brings me to my question(s). Apparently Colombia has/had a version of Pasapalabra, but I haven't been able to find anything except it's mention on the Spanish Wikipedia page for Spain's Pasapalabra. Does anyone know if, A) It still exists, B) If it's available to watch online or anywhere else? As there are some differences between Spanish spoken in Spain and Spanish spoken throughout Latin America, I was hoping to watch that one, too.
Also, sorry this is so long!
Pasapalabra's main site: http://www.telecinco.es/pasapalabra/. To view full episodes, click on "vídeos" in the top bar, then click the drop down menu next to the first video and select "programas íntegros". I think they have 2 seasons online.
1 Answer
Thank you very much for sharing this information.
