The competition as quality gender on Spanish television

Abstract

Television is entertainment. Nowadays the TV show business is identified to the concept of «trash television» to a greater extent. Nevertheless to entertain offering quality programmes is as respectable and necessary as to inform or educate. Among the immense miscellanea of entertainment genres, subgenres and formats, the game show stands out because of its noble spreading of values as the desire of being better and the stimulate of empathy and knowlodge. In spite of being in television since its birth, the game show has never disappeared of the schedule. The reason of this success is based on its structure and scheduling flexibility, its wide margins of profitability and on its capacity for involving to the audience in the programme itself. In Spain, the game show is one of the most frequent genres –since 1996, Spanish TV production companies have produced an average of more than 32 games each season, a number only overwhelmed by the local fiction (sitcoms and TV movies) - and its presence in the most watched programme ranking is constant in every television season..