Comm Media

Quiz Show Reaction

I'm not surprised that there has been a major Quiz show scandal in the past. Game shows are interesting at first; however, after a while the show gets repetative. Viewers lose interest after watching a certain number of episodes. However, when people tend to have a winning streak, it rekindles the interest of many viewers, as well as ignites the interest of others. For example, the semi-recent day Ken Jennings won for weeks on Jeopardy. He set the record for the most money earned, and has had the longest appearance on the show. He was just an ordinary man, and it amazed people to watch how he got so many questions correct and beat so many people. I'm not saying that it was fixed; I'm simply stating that more people watched the show while he was a contestant. 27 new what they were doing. A quiz show does not exist simply so that people can earn money and compete. The main reason for the show is so that the people behind the scenes can earn money from the ratings. It is obvious to why the people in charge of 27 planned for certain people to win in order to get higher ratings. People agree to be those contestants that get the answers; they could easily say no. It is as much their fault as it is of the 27 people. America could not have been that shocked; it is all very believable and understandable why the people did it. Though it was not very ethical, people are people. It's just not very surprising to what happened. I agree with the counsel members that gave props toVan Doren telling the truth. It was a very difficult thing. He already proved that he was not the most ethical person, as many people are. It is sad, but it is the truth. He therefore could have easily kept the lie going on that he wa not part of the scandal. Most people believed that he was innocent, he knew many of the answers without the extra aid, and he eventually stopped the dishonesty in his competing. Also, it would ruin both of his jobs, his reputations, as well as his family's reputation. Despite the odds, he proved that he was an ethical, honest person in the end. He risked everything for the truth.
Present day game shows do not have a person winning for a long period of time. Many shows are not made in that format. A lot of game shows today, like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, have the contestant competing with themself or with time. However, there are plenty of shows, like Jeopardy, that have others competing with other people. Both types of shows can be easily rigged. However, I believe that the industry has evolved. There aren't many game shows nowadays as there was in the past. Today consists mostly of reality TV shows. Similarly, reality TV shows are supposed to be real. However, they could be scripted for better ratings, or only show half the truth for the ratings. Is this wrong? Any type of television show is in it for the ratings. It just depends what they do to get those good ratings.

posted by maggie @ 8:19 AM