It is likely that most of the new television programs Wilke & Wilke produce for this season will be canceled. Most of the new shows they produced last season were canceled due to insufficient viewership. Furthermore, their new shows are all police dramas, and few police dramas have been popular in recent years.
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that most new Wilke & Wilke television shows this season will probably be canceled. The author supports this argument by observing that most of Wilke & Wilke’s new shows last season were canceled because of insufficient viewership. The author also asserts that Wilke & Wilke’s new shows are all police dramas, a type of show that has not been popular in recent years.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that viewership in the last season will probably be similar to viewership in the current season. The author also assumes that if few police dramas have been popular in recent years, then new police dramas will probably not be popular.
On top of this, the author assumes that viewership will be so low, and police dramas are so unpopular, that the new shows will be cancelled.
A
Wilke & Wilke have produced more new shows for this season than they produced last season.
The amount of new shows being produced in a season has no clear effect on whether most new shows in a season will be canceled, and is therefore irrelevant to the argument.
B
Most of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year were police dramas.
This doesn’t strengthen the argument, because we still don’t know how Wilke & Wilke’s low viewership interacts with the unpopularity of police dramas. Maybe their police dramas were actually unusually popular, which is why they’re producing more!
C
None of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were not canceled were police dramas.
This choice does not give us any information about the shows that are likely to be canceled; the fact that other kinds of shows were not canceled is irrelevant.
D
All of the new shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were canceled were police dramas.
This strengthens by backing up the assumption that trends from last year will predict this year’s results. Now we have a direct analogy between the types of shows the author predicts will be canceled, and similar shows last season that were actually cancelled.
E
None of the most popular television shows last year were police dramas.
This does not add to the argument, as the author has already asserted that police dramas have not been popular recently.