Medyanin Seyirlik Sunaklari: Yarişma Programlari
Spectator of the Media: Competition Programs

Summary/Abstract: The number of Quiz Shows increased since 2000’s as the icons of popular culture. These programs allow the broadcasting of the stories of ordinary people, on the other hand, they also provide opportunity to the contester to present themselves through the TV. As Andy Warhol said, each people would have a chance to be a celebrity for 15 minutes by the several forms of shows. Apart from this, they are also perceived as a short way of catching the rich global world and personal hoping. There is a close relationship between the increasing number of quiz shows and the global economic crisis. The direct correlation between these two parameters was observed in 1929, during the American Great Depression when the New York stock exchange collapsed. The effect of the mentioned crisis is observed in the Horace McCoy’s novel named as “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?” which after a while was filmed by Sydney Pollack. “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?” has been an inspiration to several quiz shows until today, such as “Who wants 500 billion?”, “BBG”, “Pop Star”, “Touch Me” and the latest popular one “Deal or No Deal?” etc. The film is about the competition of a group of people in a dance organization, and their tragic stories about struggling with American Great Depression. It can be observed that, the increasing popularity of the quiz shows in Turkey also in relation with the economic crises which is influenced daily life for the recent years. For example, a wide group which is consisted of contesters, presenter, close relatives of contesters’, viewers at studio share produced happiness and unhappiness during the most popular quiz show “Deal or No Deal?” They make a kind of group therapy for to be reach and manage the result of current economic crisis. The more the effect of economic crises is increasing the more candidates willing to the shows are increase. The main question of the research is; “Are the quiz shows an instrument of the reality TV, or are they the reflection of the society’s turbulence on the media.” The answers to these questions will be examined from the theoretical background of the film and also theoretical frame of the quiz shows broadcasting on the Turkish TV channels.

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