The producers carefully chose likable protagonists as contestants: like Gino, a cobbler from the Bronx, who happened to know everything about opera; Gloria, a twelve-year-old African American, who was a prodigious speller (she would take home $32,000); or Dr. Joyce Brothers, an attractive blond psychologist who knew everything about the sport of boxing. All were sympathetic people, who explained their deliberations carefully and quickly became stars in their own right, thanks to television's remarkable power to confer celebrity with unprecedented speed.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 482