audience

The target audience is the 'mass' audience. We are talking about television here, but it began with the use of the radio and the fact that people were content to just listen. The television brought images and words into the home; it promoted complacency in viewers. In order for producers to make money, their programming had to appeal to the largest audience possible, therefore programing is 'dumbed down' to attract a large number of viewers. If your programming is intelligent (think PBS), your number of viewers decreases. This is evident in the way PBS or even the BBC depend on individual contribution for funding. Intelligent programming decreases the number of viewers, thus, the world of television on the whole, works to attract the least common denominator to insure financial success.