Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 615, Watching Daytime Talk Shows.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 615.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
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This episode is a dialogue between Sally and Jerry It's about daytime talk shows.
These are shows where People are interviewed often about rather strange and unusual topics.
Let's get started.
Why are you wasting your time on your day off watching these daytime talk shows?
I think they're entertaining.
You've got to be kidding.
The only people who are booked as guests on those shows are losers or exhibitionists who want attention.
No, they're not.
These shows are all about human drama and tragedy, something we can all relate to.
And that I certainly don't want to hear.
I completely disagree.
Like what?
Sally begins by saying...
That's a question for Jerry.
Although normally you would work that day.
So if you, for example, had a vacation day, you decided to take Friday off, we would say that is a day off.
Well, Jerry has the day off, he's not working and he's spending his time watching daytime talk shows.
Daytime talk shows are very popular in the U.S.
They're usually on television sometime between 9 o'clock in the morning and 5 o'clock in the evening.
A talk show is where you have typically one person.
We call that person the host. who speaks to different guests who come and visit him or her.
Sometimes they're famous people.
Sometimes they're average unknown people who are coming to talk about some problem.
In the last 20 years or so, daytime talk shows have become more and more controversial because They've tried to get people to pay attention to them by having all sorts of unusual topics.
Often, there will actually be people who are fighting on the talk shows, although some of this, I think, is probably fake.
That is, they bring people on who pretend to fight.
In any case, daytime talk shows and you can tell I don't watch many of them are popular with people watching TV in the daytime.
Now, they're not all bad, but they're not to be confused with a serious news interview.
That is certainly not what you will find on most daytime talk shows.
Jerry answers Sally's question by saying Sally says The expression you've got to be kidding or you have to be kidding is used to show that you think the person you're talking to is saying something very surprising unbelievable, perhaps even a little ridiculous.
Somebody says, I am going to read my horoscope.
And I will plan my day according to that.
Your horoscope is the idea that events in your life are controlled by the planets and the stars.
Another person may say, you've got to be kidding.
Why do you waste your time on reading horoscopes?
Well, here Sally is wondering why Jerry is wasting his time watching daytime talk shows.
She continues.
The only people who are booked as guests on those shows are losers or exhibitionists who want attention.
To book someone as a verb means to schedule a date and time, typically when someone will perform in a show or participate in a show.
If you have a music band, a group that plays music, You might have a restaurant or a party that wants to book you.
They want to have you come and perform on a certain day and time.
This verb to book is also used when the police arrest someone and decide to accuse them or charge them with a crime.
I don't know why we use the same verb but we do.
Maybe some performances are so bad that people think the performer should be booked for taking their money.
I'm not sure.
When we use it in relation to the police, it's usually with the preposition for.
He was booked for murder.
He was booked for robbery.
Anyway, we're talking about daytime talk shows.
And Sally is saying that the only people who come on as guests, who are booked as guests...
Are losers or exhibitionists?
A loser is a person who has had little or no success in life, who doesn't seem to be very successful and is not respected by other people.
It's an insulting term, to be sure.
An exhibitionist is someone who likes to do strange or unusual things because he or she wants other people to notice them.
He or she wants attention when other people are looking at you and listening to you.
So people who, for example...
I don't know, take off their clothes in the middle of a shopping center.
That could be an exhibitionist, somebody who wants to have other people pay attention to them.
If you do that, you'll probably be booked for some crime.
Sally is saying that the people on this kind of program are losers or exhibitionists.
And there's some truth to that.
If you watch some of these shows, you can see that there are some people on there who just want other people to pay attention.
They want to be famous, I guess.
Jerry disagrees.
He says, Human drama refers to relationships between two or more people that are somehow exciting, often more than seems necessary or good.
Jerry says the shows are also about tragedy.
Tragedy is something that is very bad, something that is very sad.
That has happened, often related to someone dying.
Jerry thinks these shows are something we can all relate to.
To relate to something is to connect with something on an intellectual or emotional level, to understand something because it is similar to something that has happened in your life.
Sally says give me a break, which is an expression, an informal expression we use when we are telling the person that
We don't believe them.
The people who appear on these shows want fame at any cost.
Fame is to be well-known, famous.
At any cost means no matter how difficult something is.
These people want to be famous because And it doesn't matter what they do to be famous, to get fame.
She says, To exploit them.
E-X-P-L-O-I-T.
Someone means to use someone to make someone do something for you, often hurting or treating the other person unfairly.
So to exploit something would be to take someone who is innocent and we would use the expression take advantage of them.
That is, do something because perhaps they are too weak or they are not very smart, and you do something that benefits you and usually hurts them.
Well, the producers are exploiting these exhibitionists and losers for ratings.
Ratings here refers to how popular a television show is compared to other television shows.
If you say the television show has good ratings, you mean that it's very popular.
There are a lot of people who watch it.
Sally continues.
She says, Salacious, S-A-L-A-C-I-O-U-S, means too much interest in sex or sexually related topics, things that are perhaps inappropriate, things that you shouldn't be talking about in public with other people.
And that's certainly true that these shows often have a lot of salacious details that are discussed and talked about.
Jerry says, If you get off your high horse for a minute, you may learn something.
The expression to get off your high horse like the animal means to stop acting as if you were superior to other people.
Stop pretending that you are better than others.
It's a negative, insulting thing to say to someone get off your high horse, because You're saying to them you think you are better than everyone else.
Jerry thinks Sally could learn something from these shows.
Sally asks like what?
Jerry responds like how to get rid of an annoying wife and get away with it.
To get rid R-I-D of something is a phrasal verb meaning to no longer have someone or something in your presence or around, to do something so that you don't need to have any contact with this person.
Sometimes it means simply to throw out, to put in the garbage.
I'm going to get rid of this trash that is on my desk.
It can also be used informally To mean to kill someone.
And that's the meaning that Jerry is using here.
He's joking, of course.
I hope.
He says he can learn how to get rid of an annoying wife.
Someone who is annoying is someone who is bothersome.
Someone who is always causing problems.
Not only does Jerry want to get rid of his annoying wife, he also wants to get away with it.
The expression to get away with something means not to be punished for something bad that you have done.
You do something bad, but you are not punished.
You sin.
We talk about people getting away with murder.
The most famous case of that here in Los Angeles took place in the 1990s with a former football player by the name of OJ.
Simpson.
He, according to most people who looked at the evidence, killed his wife and another man, but he was not found guilty.
Unfortunately, later he committed a robbery and is in prison now, not for the murder, but for another crime he committed.
You can get away with things that are less serious, of course.
Children may get away with misbehaving in class because the teacher is too busy or too tired to punish them.
That used to happen to me all the time.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Why are you wasting your time on your day off watching these daytime talk shows?
I think they're entertaining.
You've got to be kidding.
The only people who are booked as guests on those shows are losers or exhibitionists who want attention.
No, they're not.
These shows are all about human drama and tragedy, something we can all relate to.
Give me a break.
The people who appear on these shows want fame at any cost, and the producers of the shows exploit them for ratings.
They're full of salacious details that nobody should talk about in public and that I certainly don't want to hear.
I completely disagree.
If you get off your high horse for a minute, you may learn something.
Like what?
Like how to get rid of an annoying wife and get away with it.
Fortunately, Dr. Lucy Say did not take a day off and instead wrote this wonderful script.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
