A Game Show Addiction
Back in the day before my family got cable, I remember looking forward each night to the game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy which would air back-to-back on ABC.
I used to love trying to solve each puzzle on Wheel or randomly guess at most of the Jeopardy clues.
Before I had access to the plethora of channels afforded by cable, game shows were the primary means of entertainment.
As I pondered what to write my final article about I thought back to watching game shows and why some game shows are so popular and others crash and burn.
According to Mark Darnell, co-founder of 500 Questions, was asked why game shows are so common and can do so well.
“One reason it sells well, they are easy to do and cheap to produce, so every country, no matter how poor, can afford to produce them. If you get one that works, it can last forever.”
Take a show like Jeopardy for example. The set is pretty bland. It doesn’t take a lot of money to produce and because of it’s time slot and ongoing success, it’s a prime adverting spot.
On the other hand, does anyone remember a show called The Moment of Truth, or The Chair.
Yeah neither do 96.37% of the rest of the population.
Shows like those had uninteresting premises, poor hosts or were produced in a below average way.
There have been shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune that require a little bit more thinking, but then there are others like Price is Right or Deal or No Deal that are basically just dumb luck.
Both kinds of shows can be appealing for audiences.
Some enjoy pretending like they are way smarter than contestants on Jeopardy by answering every question before the participants do. Or watching trivia shows can be a learning experience.
Others (like the author of this article) enjoy seeing people freak out over blind luck and make absolute fools of themselves on national television.
On shows such as Deal or No Deal it can be a feeling of arousal as people are on edge to see how far someone can make it before almost inevitably opening the $1,000,000 briefcase.
Shows that offer large cash prizes can also be an escape for some people. They can immerse themselves in the world of the contestant and act as if they are the ones making potentially life changing decisions.
For people such as myself, the reason for watching game shows is habit. Turn on the TV every night to see Alex Trebeck grill some intellectuals on trivia.
Regardless of one’s reasons for watching game shows, they have been around for decades and TV corporations will keep chucking them out until they find one that sticks.
As long as people are willing to continue to embarrass themselves to potentially make a boatload of cash, executives will have no reason to cancel the production of game shows.
