I once saw some American talk show programmes which had gone too far to the extremes - full of "live" conflicts and quarrels, with the parties snapping at each other while the audience laughed at them.

I felt puzzled as to how people could be so cold to others' pains and feel they were being funny. How could a television programme broadcast such "bloody" and unpleasant "wars."

I thought television stations in Western countries, unlike those in China, which are comparatively conservative in my opinion, had become crazy in their efforts to raise their audience ratings and commercial profits. That seemed to be the sole goal of US television stations.

However, with competition among local stations becoming unprecedentedly fierce, they have also started to play the same tricks and stunts as their foreign counterparts. Is this the only way for television stations to survive and stand out? I doubt it.

I was recently addicted to a programme on a local channel and so were several of my female colleagues.

It was kind of talk show - every week someone was invited to appear and tell the audience about their frustrations in love while a group of guests hand out some suggestions.

Some stories were very touching and the guest speaker would break down into tears, provoking a similar response among many in the audience.

The latest show was about a man who said his fiance had been killed in a car accident before their wedding day. He said he had received a letter written by his fiance two weeks later. In it she said that she deliberately caused the accident because she had decided to kill herself after she discovered the man was involved with another woman. The man was so remorseful he said he could never fall in love again.

I was very moved by the story. The guest "consultants" scolded him and then gave him many suggestions on how to start a new life.

By accident, the next day I met one of the guest "consultants" at a party.

When I asked him about the touching story, he told me: "It was a fake story."

All the stories on the show had been made up! I was shocked and felt cheated and a little furious.

The show employed people from an acting company. They paid each person 150 yuan for each show, rising to 200 yuan if they could break into tears when telling the stories. We had been cheated so cheaply.

In fact, similar "fake" programmes are now about to overwhelm us.

A local match-making programme was popular among young people. One of my friends took part in the show months ago, hoping to find a perfect partner. It turned out that everything was only for show. The women and men attending the show had almost no chance to get to know each other after the programme ended.

Some participants already had lovers and went there just to appear on TV and gain the gifts handed out to each participant.

I don't trust TV shows any more and if I want a twisted story, I will go to the movies.

So now I'm watching only news programmes or documentaries.

But who knows, maybe one day even they will become a tool for television channels to make profits.

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