Why Middle-aged And Older Audiences Could Be Attracted By TV Dating Show?

"If You Are the One" of JSTV, and "Take Me Out" of Hunan TV, as the representatives of the TV Dating shows, which have been dominated the major channels in leisure time since 2010. "Date on Saturday", a local TV dating show in Shanghai, which began from January 24 in 1998, has launched for more than 16 years. The theme of this program is about young people’s love and marriage, but its largest audiences group is 45-64 year-old audience.In this paper, focus group, in-depth interview and participatory observation --three research methods are used to explore the reason why 45-64 year-old viewers like watching "Date on Saturday". It can be found that want to have fun, enjoy the authenticity of the program and other three factors. Further analysis revealed that their values influence audiences choice of the program, as well as their decoding activities of television text.