Teleology on Television?

Abstract

Wildlife and nature programmes are a popular and profitable genre. To test an impression that these programmes’ references to evolution tend to be teleological, the authors collected a sample of UK radio and television (both terrestrial and cable/satellite) output over a two-month period. Analysis suggests that they fall into seven subgenres but the very high-cost ‘blue chip’ and, conversely, the supposedly cheap and cheerful ‘presenterled’ categories accounted for over half the programmes. Counterintuitively, the most expensive and elaborate programmes seem to be most inclined to treat evolution teleologically. By contrast, the less respected presenter-led subgenre seems to allow more ‘space’ for explanatory complexity. We argue that, as in other subgenres, this is because the assumed audience demand for strong narrative drive can be met by borrowing from other programme genres, action movies and whodunits, for example.