Adultery
The TV network had long
been concerned about falling ratings for our
dating show. In response, we introduced new ideas
like gay dating, S&M dating, under-age dating
and cross-species dating. In retrospect these
were poor strategies, loosing much of our
traditional audience and, in the case of the
latter two, leading to the imprisonment of the
producer.
The solution came with a
new dating show called Adultery. This
was hot enough to attract new viewers but not so
hot as to offend more than the handful of sad
individuals with nothing better to do with their
lives than write to television ‘Points of
View’ programmes. After all, much of the
population, most politicians, celebrities,
members of the Royal Family and many church
leaders indulged in the activity.
The concept was to generate
three shows. The first was Adultery in
which a married contestant would pick a partner
for an illicit affair. This was more complex than
previous date shows as the spouse of the
contestant had to remain unaware. Techniques were
used such as rigging the TV at the home of the
contestant’s spouse to show a different
programme while Adultery was broadcast.
Also close friends and relatives had to be bribed
to keep the secret.
The second show was Adultery
- the victim in which the details of the
subterfuge were shown, and covert filming
documented the experience of the spouse. The
third show was Adultery - the confrontation
in which the unsuspecting contestant and spouse
were brought to a studio under a pretext and were
then asked to watch Adultery and Adultery
- the victim in front of a live audience.
The ratings were the
highest the network had ever seen. We only ran
the shows for one season, however. Originally
that was because we believed that no contestants
would volunteer once they realised they were
being set up. In fact, hundreds of couples
applied, but we felt it undermined the gritty
reality and tragedy of the show to use couples
who would do anything just to get on TV.
We got some other spin-off
documentaries on the next season, nevertheless,
which maintained the all important ratings. Adultery
- the divorces was very successful as was Adultery
- the murders. Sadly the latter included the
untimely deaths of the show’s new producer
and the Chief Executive of the network, which
were also explored in Adultery - the burning
down of the TV studio.
The TV potential of the
idea is about exhausted now, although we are
doing one more debate from our new studio to
explore the ethics of TV networks wrecking people’s
lives to produce cheap television.
The merchandising should
maintain the revenue for a while with videos of
the shows and sweatshirts depicting the on-camera
killings. This might lead to a further televised
debate on the ethics of cynically exploiting the
lives wrecked by TV networks producing cheap
television.
Where should the date show
go next to maintain audience ratings? We have no
firm plans though I think, in the past, there has
been an overemphasis on willing contestants...
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