ABSTRACT
American television has broadcast something over 300 different quiz and game shows, the majority in daytime, or, at least, outside prime time. But one or two frequently edge their way into prime time and into top ratings in most western countries. They are a major television genre, with their roots in radio, and before that in party and community games. Their grounding in oral culture gives them a vitality and a strongly interactive relationship with the viewers, but it also makes them one of the neglected and devalued forms: for so much of television criticism stems from a literary base and therefore foregrounds those televisual forms which appear to be most literary. Although, as we will see, there is a narrative structure underlying quiz shows, their basic structure lies in the nonliterary forms of game and rituals.
