Bryan Wong lost his voice hosting Minute To Win It

SINGAPORE — New challenges make Bryan Wong come alive. Lately, one challenge has been hosting his first English game show, Minute To Win It, on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.

Contestants have one minute to complete tasks involving household items, such as stacking empty aluminium cans on top of a paper plate floating in a basin of water, for a grand prize of S$250,000.

To prepare for the task of hosting in English, Wong took some “intense” lessons from Gold 90.5FM DJ The Flying Dutchman. “It got me more worried than ever because he pointed out lots of (pronunciation) mistakes,” Wong laughed.

But it was a challenge he relished. “Being a veteran — nowadays I like to use that word — in this business, I’ve grown comfortable in whatever I’m doing because it’s almost second nature to me — provided it’s done on Channel 8 and I’m speaking in Mandarin,” he said.

“I’ve got so used to the tempo, and really, nothing is daunting to me any more — except when, out of the blue, I have to host in English.”

That meant “troubled nights and lots of worrying”, but it kept him on his toes. “You sort of come alive, because when you’re on your toes, you don’t take things for granted ... When you’re unsure of yourself, then probably, you’ll try to do better.”

Watching episodes of the original American version of the show, with Food Network’s Guy Fieri hosting, helped boost his confidence. “This guy is not a host, he’s actually a chef. He does food programmes and cooks. I consoled myself, ‘Hey, I do a lot of food programmes as well. So perhaps a game show is all right for me,’” said Wong.

As it turned out, it was more than all right — he got really into it. “Because it’s a game show, more often than not, I get pretty excited. I’m like one of the contestants. I was so hyper. And we did two recordings a day. My voice was almost gone — it was so hoarse at the end of the series, I had to go for an injection to try to get my voice back,” he revealed.

But being upbeat was the easy part. “The tricky part is, you’re not just the host, you’re supposed to be the friend and also the devil. We don’t want the contestants to come on and play two games and walk away, so I have to give them a little nudge and tell them to go for the next level,” Wong said. “(But) if they could easily walk away with what they earned in Level Five, instead of going to Level Six, I have to be the friend and say, ‘Why not just pack it up and go?’ I want them to at least walk away with something for their effort.”

Catch Minute To Win It on Wednesdays at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.

Just how many everyday tasks can Bryan Wong complete in a minute? Find out at http://tdy.sg/todaytelevision