Over the next few weeks I decided to pick a couple of daytime talk shows to watch. Through watching these shows I discovered just how much of a role language played in different television shows. I chose to watch Ricki Lake and The Rosie O'Donnel Show, two shows that I had never seen a full episode of. Both of these shows appear during the daytime, one right after the other. They are both female talk show hosts in their thirties. Both of these women performed in live plays or appeared in many movies before they became talk show hosts. With so many similarities I found it shocking that the shows were so different.

The Rosie O'Donnel Show is a completely different story. Rosie sits up at a desk and invites her guests to sit up next to her. She usually has a single guest at a time unless she has a family or two co-stars together. Many of her guests are famous and are on the show promoting a new album or movie that is about to be released. Her guests often perform for the audience, which takes up a lot of the talking time. When they aren't performing, Rosie asks them a few common questions as if she was making up time lost with an old friend. The audience never asks questions but one lucky member introduces the guests that will be appearing on the show that day. Her show has a very personal approach and the language is fit for people of all ages. I never was lost in the language but I did hear quite a few new words that Rosie herself had made up.

Judge Judy. I love every aspect of the law and can watch court television programs without giving any of the language said a second thought. This situation isn't the same for all people. There are many people who would feel as if they were being tortured by being made to watch five minutes of Judge Judy.

The final decision to stop surfing at a talk show, cooking show, or video show is influenced by language. People have a different perspective on which language they prefer. Paul Roberts writes in Speech Communities that "good English is whatever English is spoken by the group in which one moves contentedly and at ease." The English found on Ricki Lake wasn't easy for me and therefore I formed an opinion of dislike for the show. The complete opposite was true for The Rosie O'Donnel Show. This is why every show has a different appeal to each person. In the end it is the decisive point that helps us choose what channel we actually want to watch.

When watching Ricki Lake I found myself concentrating on the language that I didn't understand. I often had to rewind because I had missed so much while I was trying to translate what had been said. My personal opinion was my biggest problem when taking notes. I wasn't paying attention to the language being used; instead I was making a mockery out of it. I had to get past my personal opinions to see what was really being said and it was a big struggle for me. I often got lost in the language and became easily uninterested. I had to rewind the Ricki Lake episodes countless times to pick apart the language being used. It wasn't until I started looking for certain types of language that my notes became useful.

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Approximate Word count = 2658
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)