 |  Interactions 1 Grammar, 4/e Elaine Kirn
Darcy Jack
Quiz Shows| Game Show Narrator 1: And now, the biggest game show to ever hit prime time: "Winning Lines"!Game Show Host 1: Not since the 1950s have so many game shows appeared on prime-time TV Contestants are being quizzed and questioned nearly every night of the week. On Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" started the current quiz show craze last summer, attracting a huge audience, and winning the important November ratings race for ABC. Other networks quickly jumped on the bandwagon.Man 1: Television has always sort of eaten its young in a way. I mean it clones whatever is working, like the crush of new quiz shows shows that they are doing that again.Game Show Narrator 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to "Greed"!Narrator: Greed, says Lowry, could just as easily describe the networks motivation.Man 1: If you can get more people to sit there with a game show or a quiz show for less money than producing two sitcoms, I think you are going to see, for at least the short term, more game shows, more quiz shows, more clip shows.Reporter: It's not a new idea.Man 2: Forget it, I mean the 1950s, this is a foundation of American television, the idea of the prime-time quiz show.Narrator: But in the late 50s, the audience found out the show "Twenty One" was rigged and quiz shows lost popularity. Now NBC is bringing back "Twenty One," but instead of the esoteric trivia of old... Today's questions are what one network executive called "relatable," in other words, "easy." Game Show Host 2: For one point and $10,000, the third place finisher in an Olympic contest wins a silver medal. True or false?Contestant 1: False.Narrator: The truth is on the new batch of quiz shows, you don't have to be a scholar in order to be a millionaire.Game Show Host 3: He's won a million dollars!Narrator: Which may explain their popularity, the $64,000 question is: how long will the craze last? |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education