ABSTRACT
The televising of public occasions must meet the challenge not only of representing the event, but of offering the viewer a functional equivalent of the festive experience. By superimposing its own performance on the performance of the organizers, by displaying its reaction to the reaction of the spectators, by proposing vicarious forms of participation to compensate viewers for the participation of which they are deprived, television becomes the primary performer in the enactment of public ceremonies.
