There is a phenomenon in economics called the Winner’s Curse.
In most bidding auctions, since the winner’s bid is the highest, there is a probability that the winning bid was even higher than the actual worth of the commodity itself. The losers also might have bid higher than the product’s actual worth, but since they don’t eventually pay, it is the winner who is stuck with having to pay for the overvalued product.
In an effort to lock down Reham Khan into doing a programme, three television channels were in talks with the lady. The winner, eventually, was Neo News, which beat out some very well-established channels in this regard.
The rumoured figure is Rs 50 lakhs a month.
If that indeed is true, one wonders whether Neo has the winner’s curse. Is Ms Khan worth that much in terms of what she will bring to the table, so to speak?
Don’t get me wrong. She is an intelligent and articulate speaker, certainly with more grace and poise than most anchors around. We saw that on Aaj TV and then Dawn News. But her programmes weren’t exactly the TRP pullers that one assumes Neo is presumably gunning for at this cost.
True, you might argue. But she isn’t just an anchor anymore. She is the former Mrs Imran Khan. Surely that would amount to something, wouldn’t it?
Perhaps it would, perhaps it wouldn’t. But we all know that the only way the programme is really going to be seen is if she starts grilling the PTI. It would be difficult for her to find the balance between appearing to be neutral (somehow an obsession in the Pakistani media) and doing the sort of show that rakes in the moolah.
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For what it is worth, her first programme on the channel, which was a three-part interview of hers, certainly was watched. Since this interview centred around her marriage, it would be wise of Neo not to expect such ratings for her subsequent programmes.
On the interview itself: Ms Khan was, as usual, articulate and well-spoken. Yes, there was a brief tremor in her voice when the interviewer asked a specific set of questions about her divorce, which she recovered from soon enough.
Though those whose minds have been made up about the lady (looking at you, PTI followers) won’t think anything nice of her, many would still have felt some sympathy for her son, who was also very briefly interviewed. The visibly emotional young man talked about his mother and how angry he feels when he reads internet comments about her.
We tend to think of public figures as individuals who exist in vacuum, with no kin, frozen in time till we see them next, much like the bulb in refrigerators.
But they are flesh-and-blood human beings who, despite having thicker skins, still hurt. Or at least have family members who feel pain.
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Let us see where this goes. We wish Ms Khan luck and happy tidings.
A note here: In the interview, she alludes to the editor of this paper, who had broken the news of both her wedding and divorce and still expressed her distaste at the gentleman.
Well, she did in fact get married to Imran Khan. And divorced. Her gripe can hardly be that he was spreading false rumours.
Though it is very difficult as human beings to do so, but it is wise to avoid shooting the messenger.
