Interviewing FremantleMedia Asia’s CEO Patrick Schult recently, he mentioned a show called ‘Songs that Make you Cry’, best described as a “unique fusion of emotional storytelling and music.” Licensed by FremantleMedia for all Asia from Japan’s Nippon TV (NTV), the show features a mixture of sad and uplifting stories retold, culminating in a song, significant to the story, being performed by a singing star. It cast me back over twenty years to a segment of the Simon Bates show on BBC Radio 1 called ‘Our Tune’. Every day at 11am, people would gravitate to their radio sets to hear, over the background theme of Nino Rota’s theme to Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, Bates read a letter sent by a listener. The story would usually be sad, concluding with a record chosen by the correspondent. Cue the Kleenex. And ‘Songs that Make you Cry’ is part of a current trend that Schult describes as ‘emo-tainment’, prompted in part by the recession. “There is a trend toward programming that helps people be thankful for what they have, despite the downturn,” says Schult. “In Australia, there’s a show called ‘Triple Zero Heroes’, which not only reconstructs real-life critical situations, featuring the actual call made to the emergency services, but also reunites rescue personnel with the people whose lives they saved. It’s very emotional.” Schult has high hopes for ‘Songs that Make you Cry’, “It helps remind people to be thankful for what they have, but by the same token we need to ensure there’s a balance, that it’s not just about tragedy, but also about triumph over adversity.”