The Quiz Show

A study of the quiz and game show format which has proved to be consistently popular with viewers since the growth of the medium in the 1950s.

its enduring popularity with both broadcasters and audiences, the quiz show has found itself marginalised in studies of popular television. This book offers a unique introduction to the study of the quiz show, while also revisiting, updating and expanding on existing quiz show scholarship. Ranging across programmes such as Double Your Money, The $64,000 Dollar Question, Twenty-One, The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Weakest Link to the controversial ''Quiz TV Call'' phenomenon, the book explores programmes with a focus on question and answer. Topics covered include the relationship between quiz shows and television genre; the early broadcast history of the quiz show; questions of institutional regulation; quiz show aesthetics; the social significance of ''games''; ''ordinary'' people as television performers, and questions of quiz show reception (from interactivity to on-line fandom).