TV Games Shows

One of the mostfascinating things about television is the size of the audience.A novel can beon the best sellers list with a sale of fewer than 100,000 .copies,but apopular TV

show might have 70million TV viewers.TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight.

This is theprinciple behind quiz or game shows,which put ordinary people on TV to play agame for the prizes and money.A quiz show can make anyone a star,and it can

give away thou-sandsof dollars just for fun.But all of this money can create problems.Forinstance,in the 1950s, quiz shows were very popular in the US and almost everyone

watched them.Charles Van Doren, an English instructor,became rich and famous after winningmoney on several shows.He even had a career as a television personality.But

one of the losersproved that Charles Van Doren was cheat-ing. It turned out that the show'sproducers,who were pulling the strings,gave the answers to the most popular

contestantsbeforehand. Why?Because if the audience didn't like the person who won thegame,they turned the show off. Based on his story,a movie under the title QuizShow

is on 40 yearslater.

Charles Van Doren isno longer involved with TV.But game shows are still here,though they aren'ttaken as seriously. In fact,some of them try to be as ridiculous as

possible.There areshows that send strangers on vacation trips together,or that try to causenewly-married couples to fight on TV,or that punish losers by humiliatingthem.The

entertainment now isto see what people will do just to be on TV.People still win money,but the realprize is to be in front of an audience of mil-lions.Prizes and moneyare usually provided by TV stars and large companies for winners.

A.Right

B. Wrong

C. Not mentioned