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Tabloid television
Definition Sensationalistic television newsmagazine
programs modeled after print tabloids
Meant to be the televised equivalent of tabloid newspapers,
tabloid television shows established a foothold in both day-
time and prime time during the 1980’s. Their proliferation
blurred the line between entertainment and mainstream
traditional news, the public accepted this shift, and network
news programs modified their formats in response to their
tabloid competition.
Tabloid television in the 1980’s encompassed a range
of programming that used provocative titles, an ex-
aggerated style, and content related to crime, sex,
celebrity gossip, and other outlandish or sensational
subjects. The television landscape was changing dur-
ing the decade as a result of the proliferation of ca-
ble channels, as well as an increase in
the number of independent broad-
cast television stations and the estab-
lishment of FOX as a viable fourth
network. The explosion in the num-
ber of channels entailed a demand
for content and created a thriving
marketplace for syndicated program-
ming—inexpensive alternative pro-
gramming that was sold to individual
stations or groups of stations, rather
than entire networks. Unscripted,
nonfiction programming, moreover,
was the among the least expensive
such programming to produce.
Rupert Murdoch had already built
an international tabloid newspaper
empire when he bought FOX. He
programmed the fourth network with
such “reality” and tabloid shows as
COPS,A Current Affair, andAmerica’s
Most Wanted. The latter series was the
first FOX show to break into the Niel-
sen ratings’ top fifty. As a man who
had been the subject of tabloid attention because of
his son’s kidnapping and murder, John Walsh was a
perfect host ofAmerica’s Most Wanted.Tabloid Television Genres Three formats or gen-
res of nonfiction programming became the basis for
tabloid television. The first format, a type of “reality”
television, used minicams to capture documentary
footage of law enforcement or rescue personnel
performing their duties. Extraordinary amounts of
footage were shot and carefully edited to heighten
the drama, and staged reenactments sometimes sub-
stituted for actual footage. FOX built early prime-
time success onCOPS, a show in which viewers were
offered the experience of riding along in police pa-
trol cars in different cities around the country.
The second format, the tabloid newscast or docu-
mentary, copied the appearance of a nighttime news-Tabloid talk show host Geraldo Rivera’s nose was broken in a brawl with white
supremacists that broke out during a taping of his show on November 3, 1988.(AP/
Wide World Photos)