2 Cat premieres 'Rescat', a new contest to be smart with Catalan

BarcelonaWhat other Catalan word can be formed with the letters of somni? Ten seconds. The new contest Rescat wants to involve the viewer in playing with language, so as to test not only their lexical knowledge, but also their creativity and ability to outsmart opponents. The new format on La 2, presented by actor Peter Vives in his debut as a master of ceremonies for a contest, will occupy the schedule from eight-thirty to nine o'clock, every day from Monday to Friday until the summer. It premieres this Thursday and, for now, there will be 60 programs awaiting whether this production by La Manchester, Ricard Ustrell's production company, takes root and achieves renewal.

The program is an original format developed by Elisenda Gorgues and Martí Lucas in which the different intelligences related to language are explored. In one of the challenges, for example, the definition of an unusual word is proposed. The three participants in each episode must invent a non-existent word that could fit it. Then the three proposals and the correct word are read, and points are obtained for guessing it correctly, but also if someone has voted for your proposal. In each program, two contestants survive and one goes home with the money they have accumulated up to that point.

The unspent budget accumulates in a pot that, in this first season, reaches five figures. The challenge that allows you to win the big prize is an ascending scale of anagrams: in one minute, you have to solve a three-letter word, a four-letter word, a five-letter word, a six-letter word, and a seven-letter word, with increasing difficulty.

Elisenda Pineda, the contest director, explains to ARA: “The format is a gem, which plays with Catalan with a touch of Enigmàrius, a bit of Paraulògic... But not everything is based on knowledge: you have to be clever and strategic”. The roster of contestants for this first season is deliberately diverse: “We have had young people of eighteen who studied philology, but also retired people from choirs and amateur theater. We have had doctors, lawyers, and many teachers. And we are happy to have an inclusive set for contestants with reduced mobility. We asked to have gender, age, and mobility transversality, and we have been able to do it”, Pineda details.

The choice of Peter Vives has allowed a humorous and empathetic part to be added to the format. A follower of late shows, he had long imagined himself doing television and the opportunity came with the launch of La 2 Cat. “I use my acting skills, like when we do a little gag at the beginning where I explain an idiom through improvisation, but presenting has been more complicated than I expected,” explains the performer, who declares himself happy to contribute his bit in favor of Catalan. “I thought it would be easy, not having to memorize a script, not working nights... and, damn it, between the teleprompter, what they tell you in your earpiece, and talking to the three contestants... I finished every program exhausted!”