The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows

330 pages. He leaped from his chair, ripped off his microphone, and lunged at his ex-wif e. Security guards rushed to intercept him. The audience screamed, then cheered. Were producers concerned? Not at all. They were getting what they wanted: the m oney shot.From classy shows like Oprah to trashy shows like Jerry Spr inger, the key to a talk show's success is what Laura Grindstaff calls the money shot?moments when guests lose control and express joy, sorrow, rage, or remor se on camera. In this new work, Grindstaff takes us behind the scenes of daytime television talk shows, a genre focused on real stories told by ordinary peo ple. Drawing on extensive interviews with producers and guests, her own attendan ce of dozens of live tapings around the country, and more than a year's experien ce working on two nationally televised shows, Grindstaff shows us how producers elicit dramatic performances from guests, why guests agree to participate, and t he supporting roles played by studio audiences and experts.Grindstaff tra ces the career of the money shot, examining how producers make stars and experts out of ordinary people, in the process reproducing old forms of cultural hierar chy and class inequality even while seeming to challenge them. She argues that t he daytime talk show does give voice to people normally excluded from the media spotlight, but it lets them speak only in certain ways and under certain rules a nd conditions. Working to understand the genre from the inside rather than pass judgment on it from the outside, Grindstaff asks not just what talk shows can te ll us about mass media, but also what they reveal about American culture more ge nerally.…