In Brief... World News Review: Grabbing for the Ring
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (imported from Britain) has become a golden-egg-laying-goose for the network, consistently pulling top Nielsen ratings and beating the other networks. It even topped the 57th Annual Golden Globes during the hour that it played opposite the awards show on January 23.
Diving to cash in on the public's love for money give-away shows, Fox has begun to air Greed. (How's that for a subtle name?) NBC has resurrected Twenty-One, the infamous game show that once fraudulently furnished Charles Van Doren with answers to quiz questions in advance out of-well, greed to build and keep the show's audience. CBS joined the dash for cash-lovers late with Winning Lines.
In true, "I'll see that and raise you one" mentality, Fox promises a new show this February, titled Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? The list of possibilities for thinly disguised clones is nauseatingly endless.
The U.S.-Canadian and British markets aren't the only ones that have an appetite for big-money game shows. A similar show, Chance of a Lifetime, recently pulled a Norwegian audience of 1.25 million people-in a market of just 4 million!
"Why are these shows making a comeback?" is an easy question to answer from the networks' point of view. They are relatively cheap to make. The sets are inexpensive, and advertisers front the money that is given away to winners. Not that there are that many winners. ABC's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? had a million-dollar winner recently-only the second person ever to win the big prize on any of the show's various versions.
Maybe the question "Why are these shows so popular with the viewing public?" is a little more difficult to answer. This Week, ABC's Sunday morning news show, discussed the phenomenal success of their money game, speculating on the reasons for its astounding popularity. The round table of newspersons all thought people simply wanted to see other people win. Only one, a conservative columnist, disagreed, saying he believed that most watched in the hope that they would see the contestant lose! He was roundly booed for his uncharitable attitude!
There is a more basic answer, one that would surely raise a chorus of boos from those who are mesmerized by this "cavalcade of cash cows" for network television. That is, they pander to a desire that lies within the makeup of everyone's primary nature, the desire to strike it rich. The audience is able to project itself into the winner's circle, to vicariously win the big money. It plays to the tinsel veneer of cheap values that overlay Western culture like a shabby forgery of the genuine article.
What harm does it do? Some might say that quiz shows are "educational" and therefore good for people to watch. Hmm…. I wonder if anyone thinks of reading a book anymore, or going for a walk to look at what God has made. Does anyone really think that it is "good" that millions upon millions of man-hours are being spent weekly in front of the television watching a few people trying to grab for the brass ring?
Is it truly good that people bathe their minds in-as one show is plainly titled-greed? Look again at the timeless wisdom of God on the subject: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things" (1 Timothy 6:9-10). ( ABC's This Week; Variety; Associated Press; Northeastern News, Northeastern University; Drudge Report )
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: February 2000
Course Content
Peter Eddington
Peter serves at the home office as Interim Manager of Media and Communications Services.
He studied production engineering at the Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and is a journeyman machinist. He moved to the United States to attend Ambassador College in 1980. He graduated from the Pasadena campus in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and married his college sweetheart, Terri. Peter was ordained an elder in 1992. He served as assistant pastor in the Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, California, congregations from 1995 through 1998 and the Cincinnati, Ohio, congregations from 2010 through 2011.
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
