Television is talking money, money, money this spring, and tens of millions of viewers are clearly listening.
Whether it's network dramas featuring get-rich-quick capers or game shows that are about nothing but a $1-million prize, Hollywood is finding that programming with essentially the same premise -- go for the greed -- is a big ratings winner.
NBC's "Deal or No Deal," in which contestants choose among briefcases with hidden money ranging from a penny to $1 million, is the most successful series on the network, drawing upward of 18 million viewers a night.
"Thief," a new drama on cable channel FX, opens with a daring bank robbery and is all about the swag -- and the criminals trying to get rich on guile and guts.
Fox also has a meditation on money that is racking up impressive ratings in "Unan1mous." The reality TV show's premise is stunning in its simplicity: Take nine people, lock them in an underground bunker and don't let them out until they can unanimously agree on which one of them should receive a grand prize of $1.5 million.
"Greed is as American as piety," said Larry Mintz, associate professor of popular culture at the University of Maryland, College Park. "That's one of the elements that appears to be at work in these shows that are all about the money -- and have nothing to do with smarts or skill. This is the very-American, get-rich-quick, winning-lottery-ticket fantasy speaking to viewers today."
Few shows have ever been as upfront as "Deal" in telling the audience what they are about: "Tonight, 26 briefcases full of money," a booming, off-screen voice intones at the start of the program. "Twenty-six beautiful women holding the cases, and 26 chances for someone to win big and change their life forever."
"I promise you," host Howie Mandel earnestly tells viewers, "no crazy stunts, no trivia, no skill."
But some media observers say these shows succeed, in part, by exploiting the economic anxiety in society today. Shaky pensions, mounting medical co-payments, rising gas prices and seemingly endless downsizing in the American workplace can leave consumers -- and TV viewers -- longing for a show-me-the-suitcase-of-cash solution.
Comparing the popularity of "Deal" and "Unan1mous" to the dominance of TV quiz shows like "The $64,000 Question" in the 1950s, Abe Novick, a vice president at Eisner Communications who specializes in cultural trends, said: "I think there was a similar kind of anxiety to what we're feeling today that existed in the culture in the 1950s. And I think the kind of escape and get-rich-quick promise that such shows offered then and promise now speaks directly to that kind of worry."
