IN STUDIO FOUR of TVB City in Tseung Kwan O, Canto-pop star Hacken Lee, actor Leung Wing-chung and veteran actress Liza Wong Ming-chuen are sitting to the right side of the stage. The trio is watching 50-year-old housewife Lim Pek-lang perform the classic Putonghua number, Not Returning Home Today.
Lim - whose red embroidered dress sports an unfeasibly large pair of shoulder pads - is about to let rip with the chorus when a huge gong rings. The celebrity judges appear desperate to cut her short and enthusiastically wield their hammers.
Ding! Ding! Ding! The music stops, two plumes of white smoke engulf the woman who, when it clears, is escorted away by two muscular masked men in red wrestling costumes. Lin's 28 seconds of fame are over and she's $2,800 richer, but her career has been consigned to entertainment history.
Permanent judges Lee and Leung's razor-like remarks about the talent, or lack thereof, of the contestants parading before them have earned them comparisons with Simon Cowell, the acid-tongued British judge of the wildly successful reality TV talent show, American Idol.
But comparisons with the US franchise should end there, insists Wilson Chin Kwok-wai, executive producer of TVB's new hit series Minutes to Fame. Chin says the programme isn't looking for a pop idol, but for an entertainer. 'We want people who love to perform,' he says. 'We give them a chance on the show and to win some money. There are so many people who want to perform, so we thought why not set up a stage for them? It's just for fun. Everyone's happy.'
Not least Chin and TVB. Since Minutes to Fame hit the airwaves on Jade earlier this month, it has notched up more than 1.5 million viewers per episode, a phenomenal figure for a weekend show, especially during Lunar New Year.
Despite the William Hung factor, Chin says they are not searching for wacky people with novelty value, stressing that the judging is based on performance, personality and image. And to back up the claim that this is not Hong Kong Idol, Chin says unlike the winner of the US show, a contract isn't necessarily on offer. Indeed, it's something still to be decided - depending, no doubt, on the winner's ability.