Caiga Quien Caiga (Whoever May Fall), also known as CQC, is an Argentine television show. Under the format of the production company Cuatro Cabezas, CQC has also been adapted in Spain, France, Chile, Italy, Brazil, Portugal and briefly in Israel and the Netherlands.
It won an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment in 2010.
Overview
CQC is a weekly news roundup that takes a humorous and ironic approach to reporting current affairs, show business and sports. CQC'''s reporters are known for asking politically incorrect questions to celebrities, which in some cases leads to visible discomfort in the interviewees.
One of the trademarks of the show is the heavy editing of the interviews to add cartoons and sound effects with the goal of highlighting (by ridicule) the interviewee's reactions. Reporters sometimes give controversial gifts to celebrities.
Hosts and reporters all dress in black suits and wear black glasses, inspired by the characters in Quentin Tarantino’s movie Reservoir Dogs.
The name of the show in Spanish is a commonly used phrase meaning "whatever it takes" (literally: "whoever might fall"), as a reference to the unorthodox interviewing methodology.
A recurring segment is "Proteste Ya" ("Protest Now"), which involves the people of a certain neighborhood or home area sending an e-mail to an e-mail address especially reserved for "Proteste Ya", complaining about government negligence in their neighborhood. The CQC journalists then go to that neighborhood, find out about the problem and try to force the person responsible to make a commitment to improve the situation, often taking something from their office as a "collateral".
CQC around the world
Argentina
The Argentine edition of CQC was hosted by Mario Pergolini, Eduardo de la Puente and Juan di Natale until 2009. The new anchor is Roberto Pettinato.
It started broadcasting in Canal 2 (currently known as América TV), in 1995. This first stage ended in 1999, with a special show transmitted live from the Gran Rex Theatre in Buenos Aires. In 2001, there was a special show (made in the same theatre) to announce the new season of the show for the next year, this time in Canal 13. In 2005, Canal 13 hired Marcelo Tinelli, who is frequently argumented in the programme and has been a longtime rival of Mario Pergolini. This resulted in CQC (and all of the shows produced by Cuatro Cabezas) moving to Telefé. The show went on the air every Monday at 10:30 pm (local hour). On 15 December 2008, Pergolini officially retired from the show.
The journalist cast in Canal 2 were Clemente Cancela, Andy Kusnetzoff, Guillermo López, Daniel Malnatti, Gonzalo Rodríguez and Daniel Tognetti. The cast in Canal 13 were Clemente Cancela, Diego Della Salla, Guillermo López, Daniel Malnatti and Gonzalo Rodríguez.
Chile
The Chilean edition started broadcasting in 2002 on Mega every Sunday at 10:00 pm. The hosts are Nicolás Larrain, Gonzalo Feito and Iván Guerrero. The journalist cast is composed of Sebastian Eyzaguirre, Jean Philippe Cretton and Pamela Le Roy, as well as the hosts Feito and Guerrero. Previously in the show were reporter Marcelo Arismendi, Fernando Lasalvia and hosts Felipe Bianchi and Pablo Mackenna. With the show being broadcast on a Christian channel, they are restricted from talking to people related to the church. The show is produced with the support of the Chilean production company Edu. Some of their most popular memes is El Hombre de Trabajo Trabajo y Trabajo and Eduardo Bonvallet. The last season on Mega was produced on 2011. After that, the Chilean edition has had sporadic special episodes on Chilevisión and YouTube sponsored by the mobile carrier WOM.
Spain
The Spanish version was broadcast by Telecinco from 1996 to 2008 (except in 2003 and 2004 when the show was cancelled), by La Sexta from May 2008 to December 2008, and by Cuatro in 2010. The first period (1996 to 2002) was produced by GloboMedia, while Cuatro Cabezas was in charge from 2002 to 2010.