The not-so-forgotten morning show TV host Maya Khan believes she was hard done by. As proof of her innocence what does she come up with on Kamran Shahid’s talk show? Answer: those who she ran after in a park were ‘paid actors’.

Really? So? What does that mean? In fact, it makes room for a new debate: taking the audience for a ride! It, in a manner of speaking, creates doubt in the viewers’ minds regarding whether whatever happens on morning shows is real. It puts a new spin on the whole talk show scenario. This may imply that Pakistani media has not come of age and there’s lots to be done to make it look and sound mature.

While one is aware that TV shows in the US, most of them, are scripted, it is rather perplexing as to what made Maya K use ‘paid actors’ to drive a point home, which could have easily be done through a panel discussion. More importantly, if the programme was scripted, all the more shame for it, because it was all carefully planned and executed (in legal parlance ‘premeditated’) and unethically enacted in a make-believe manner without informing the viewers that it was recorded with a paid cast!

One wonders why more heads have not rolled at the channel that braodcast the show.