One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience¹. A novel can be on the "best seller"² lists with a sale of fewer than 100,000 copies³, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers⁴. TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight⁵.

    This is the principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money6. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away7 thousands of dollars just for fun8. But all of this money can create problems. For instance, in the 1950s, quiz shows were very popular in the U.S.and almost everyone watched them. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous 9 after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality 10. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show"s producers who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand 11. Why? Because if the audience didn"t like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. The result of this cheating was a huge scandal 12. Based on his story, a movie under the title "Quiz Show" is on 13 40 years later.

    Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV 14. But game shows are still here, though they aren"t taken as seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliation them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.