Throwing a chair at shows

China’s broadcasting watchdog has ordered a crackdown on low-brow confessional talk shows as part of a campaign against base entertainment and because such programs often fake their content, a media report said Wednesday.

China has seen a plethora of these television shows, mainly on regional stations, with names such as “Real Love,” “Here Comes the Litigant” and “Say It Like It Is,” where people come on to talk about family disputes or appeal for money.

Many of them have resorted to faking their content to get higher ratings, the Xian Evening News said, in a report carried on the popular Chinese Web portal Sina.com.

“Sometimes we cannot but make up stories in order to get viewers’ eyeballs, and we hire actors to do it,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed television executive as saying.