Convergence Culture
The Quiz Show That Became a Town
ruth or Consequences was a popular NBC spected the show so much that they would be willing radio quiz show during the 1940s and 1950s to name their town after it. Tthat later became one of the earliest televi- In Hot Springs, New Mexico, a small desert spa sion quiz shows. It is also an early example of what town on Interstate 25 between El Paso and Albuquer- we would recognize today as reality television—and que, citizens decided by majority vote that changing shows just how influential entertainment can be in our the name could give the sleepy resort town the boost regular lives. The show’s producer, Ralph Edwards, it needed. In 1950 Edwards brought the Truth or Con- wanted to celebrate the show’s tenth anniversary in sequences radio show to Truth or Consequences, 1950 in a special way and thought it would be inter- New Mexico, for a live broadcast. esting if the citizens of a town in the United States re- Two subsequent referendums in the 1960s on whether to keep the Truth or Consequences name both passed, and Edwards visited the town every year for 50 years with Hollywood friends to cel- ebrate the anniversary of the name change (and to generate publicity for the town), even though the radio and television shows had long been off the air. To get around the long-winded name for the town, it is mostly referred to as “T or C” by its 7,200 residents and in New Mexico.
Seyfried, and Brad Pitt. But fans of soaps need not despair; full-length episodes of Guiding Light are available online at CBS’s website.
Filling the Days One of the greatest sensations in commercial television’s first full decade was the game or quiz show, a format that had been successful in radio as well. Nearly every one with a television set in their home tuned in each week to their favorite quiz show. These shows drew enormous audiences partly because it was easy to identify with the contestants, many of whom came from ordinary walks of life, and the stakes were large. By the end of the 1958 TV season, there were twenty-two net- work quiz shows, or one of every five shows. It turned out that many were rigged, and after a public scandal involving the popular quiz show Twenty-One and a con- gressional investigation, new rules for regulating game shows emerged. Many daytime game shows were either cancelled or moved to evening pro- gramming slots, although some were revived to fill the holes left by the cancellation of the soaps. One exception has been the long-running popular daytime game show The Price Is Right, whose thirty-five-year host Bob Barker retired in 2008, at age eighty-four. On the whole, however, game shows have been replaced by a format that is even cheaper, the talk show. Talk shows such as Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, Tyra, and The Oprah Winfrey Show have taken much of the role that soaps used to play in bringing controversial or sensitive issues to the public arena, as guests talk about a wide range of personal issues.
Chapter 10 / Entertainment 311
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