The suspense is bearable
In real life, suspense filled with dread consists mostly of unexpected jolts in your daily routine, without any accompanying music. The CEO asking to see you for a chat is seldom about a promotion — and your old car will be upgraded to a Beamer. A doctor’s diagnosis of your condition arising from a severe chest pain is full of anxiety — we’ll have to do more tests just to be sure. Sometimes, you just forget where you parked your car.
Can suspense be faked and protracted to tease the audience? Does the faux titillation increase interest?
Entertainment TV has created the formula for “false suspense.” This shot of artificial adrenaline is used in events that feature contestants vying for prizes. Before the envelope is opened or the verdict announced, the audience holds its collective breath while the hosts postpone the revelation — let’s give a big hand to our band and its talented conductor. Beauty contests, and the recent academy awards, have mastered this extended withholding of the announcement of winners, only to read the wrong card.
A frequently used device for delay is the break for commercials. Imagine how the advertiser feels being cast as a speed bump. What emotions does the audience have towards the airing of a bunch of commercials introduced as interruptions to the denouement? Do viewers rush out for a toilet break? Does postponement of a much- awaited announcement predispose the viewer to get some of the advertised pizzas?
To further stretch the ending, hosts like to toy with the contestant. (I know what’s on the envelope and you don’t.) Even when
the news is good, the contender who may or may not be eligible to move on to the next stage of the contest is made to twist in the wind — how did you think you fared in the swimsuit competition? Even when about to drop a favorable decision, the host stretches the fake suspense — I don’t have good news for you (pause for five seconds)… I have great news.
The use of sound effects like the “drum roll” associated with executions in an open park boosts the mood of anticipation. Also, the handing of the envelopes by leggy assistants along with the slow opening of the same prolongs the tension.
Suspense in a movie or novel (although in the latter, one can cheat and skip to the end and see if the threatened hero survives) comes from conflict or a frenzied chase of fleeing targets complete with crashing cars and fistfights.
The artificial stretching out of an awaited announcement of the winner, however, offers no added delight to the audience. Instead, it evokes irritation at dragging out the expected coronation of the winner. The false suspense after all is introduced after the contest is already decided and waiting only for the winners to be announced.
It is doubtful whether prolonging the suspense contributes to higher ratings for a program. For sure it simply makes the host annoying, tempting the audience to switch channels and just check the internet later for the results.
Politics has borrowed from reality TV this idea of false suspense. A yet- to- be- announced candidacy with its fanfare and obvious pre-rental of the venue along with a line of endorsers unmask the scripted nature of the not surprising revelation.
The candidate who has yet to declare availability is not depriving anyone of sleep, except perhaps that of PR handlers. The funders are keeping their checkbooks in their drawers as attacks
that gradually escalate are lobbed by proxies. Does the delayed timing of a declared availability for a political or corporate position make a difference?
An early announcement can ensure a good survey rating as there are only hypothetical rivals to be compared with. Any criticism, including allegations both documented and alleged, is dismissed, not always successfully, as nothing more than a demolition job. However, it is a well established fact that front- runners and early announcers are on top of everybody else’s hit list. Somehow, they get battered and wounded as they make it to the finish line at the tail end.
Still, fake suspense in dragging out an announcement of corporate succession does not heighten interest at all. It only increases the number of hopefuls who will eventually be disgruntled later.
Fake suspense is indeed bearable. Those on tiptoes waiting to be kissed eventually get back on their heels… and head for the nearest exit.