TV Dramaturgy: Format Approach

The article analyses the issues of television format and its dramatic foundation. Unlike film, a television spectacle is, above all, reproducible: in its core lays a replicated plot structure, which is filled with new content in each new episode of the series. The need for establishing of a steady communication with TV audience demands special rules, instruments and plot devices, enclosed in a professional term “television format”. Consistent modelling of predetermined reactions of the audience is in the core of the format’s dramatic structure. The format is seen outside the specific subject-matter; as a dynamic system: as a number of multi-level codes.