The Arena

Audio:English

The format of debates for The Arena was created specially for the show and differed from other competitive debate formats. Each team had three speakers. The first speaker on each team spoke for 3 minutes and 30 seconds, the second speaker for 4 minutes, and the third speaker for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Each set of two speeches was considered to be one 'Round' within the debate, and each 'Round' was judged separately. Speakers stood in the middle of the room, and spoke directly to one opponent from the other team (rather than facing to the audience and the judges as in most other debate formats). This opponent was allowed interrupt the speech with points of information (POIs – a feature of both the World Schools style and British Parliamentary style of debating). However unlike other debate formats which use POIs, the speaker was not allowed to decline to hear a point when it was offered. Each team had a 1 minute and 30 second POI 'Rebuttal Bank', which they could use over the course of the three speeches by the other team. In between the second and third speeches of the two teams, there was an additional 3 minute 'Rebuttal Round' involving all 6 debaters in a series of short arguments and immediate responses on the topic. Each episode was judged by four judges. Each judge decided which team they thought has won each 'Round' within the debate, and the team with the most points at the end was declared the winner. Judges : Each episode was judged by three regular judges and one guest judge. The regular judges on the show were: K.K. Seet – Senior Lecturer at the National University of Singapore Eunice Olsen – Nominated Member of Parliament and former Miss Singapore Universe Ashraf Safdar – Journalist from the Today newspaper and member of the Debate Association Singapore Executive Committee Guest judges for the show included Singapore celebrities like Tan Kheng Hua and Daisy Irani. The guest judge for the final (and the only guest judge to appear on the show twice) was Viswa Sadasivan, the Chairman of the Political Development Feedback Group of Singapore's Feedback Unit, who is also the Chairman of the Right Angle Group and a former TV presenter. For the preliminary selection rounds of the show (which were not televised), the teams were also judged by Geetha Creffield (ex-President of Debate Association Singapore and former coach of the Singapore national schools debating team) and Mark Gabriel (Secretary of the World Schools Debating Council and Tournament Director of the Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships).

Cast & Crew

Cast	Jason Chan
Producers	Ignatius Teo Prem, Anand Jialin, Lindsay Goh, Monica
Writer	Valerie Looi

Season 1

Season 2

Oldest First
Newest First

The Arena is an exciting live-televised platform for young debaters to showcase their talents in argument. The Arena is open to all secondary and international schools in Singapore. Motions for debate will revolve around current issues and various topics, ranging from art to science, that concern youths of today. For each round of contest, teams of three speakers will assert their statement of argument and challenge the opposing team to win points and SMS votes from judges and viewers. Through 2 levels of grueling auditions, only 10 schools will qualify for the preliminary round. Wildcards will also be played in both the preliminaries and quarter final stages, giving the winners of the loser’s pool another chance to stay in the competition.

Ep 1 Raffles Institution vs CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School

60 mins