The television network's advertisement for its new medical drama gross

Premise:
Network's ad misrepresents the program.

Conclusion:
It will not as effectively attract the sort of viewers likely to continue watching the program as would the advertisement that the program's producers favored.

Note that the conclusion concludes not just "the network's ad will not be effective in attracting suitable viewership" (which is valid), but it also concludes that the producer's ad would have been more effective. We have no reason to believe that.

The assumption is that the producer's ad does not misrepresent. This is given in option (B) so that is correct. Let's look at the other options too.

A. Most viewers who tune in to the first episode of the program will do so because of the network's advertisement for the program.

The argument talks about people who tune in because of the network's ad. What percentage they represent out of total viewership is outside the scope of the argument.

C. Most people who tune in to the first episode of the program and become loyal viewers will not have tuned in to the first episode as a result of the network's advertisement for the program.

Same logic as (A)

D. If the advertisement that the program's producers favored were used instead of the network's advertisement, almost all of the viewers who tuned in to the first episode would tune in to subsequent episodes as well.

No. We are only concerned about people who get attracted by Ads. There could be a lot of people who would watch the program after reading an article about it in the news that such a program is being launched. There could be many viewers who watch anything that comes in that time slot... whatever. Point is that almost all viewers who tune in to the first episode may not have been the Ad watchers. So the author is not assuming that if producer's ad would have been used, almost all first time viewers would have stuck around. He is assuming that producer's ad would have been more effective in attracting (more) regular viewers.

E. Most people who become loyal viewers of a program do not miss the program's first episode.
Out of scope. What kind of viewers watch the first episode has no impact on our argument.

Answer (B)

• The television network's advertisement for its new medical drama grosslymisrepresentswhat that program is like.
  (Assn: misinterpretation will result in loosing the viewers.)
• Thus, it will not as effectively attract the sort of viewers likely to continue watching the program as would the advertisement that the program's producers favored;
  (Assn: the producers favored advertisement will not misinterpret and hence will not result in viewers stopping watching the program.)
• people who tune in to the first episode based on false expectations will be unlikely to watch subsequent episodes.
  (Assn: Once stopped continues forever.)

The argument relies on which one of the following assumptions?

A. Most viewers who tune in to the first episode of the program will do so because of the network's advertisement for the program.
(We are concerned about what happens after the viewers watch the first program and their response with kind of expectations generated by TV network advertisement. We are least bothered about why the viewers will tune in to the 1st episode. OFS)

B. The advertisement that the program's producers favored would not have grossly misrepresented what the program would be like.
(This is inline with our assumptions and pre-line thinking.)

C. Most people who tune in to the first episode of the program and become loyal viewers will not have tuned in to the first episode as a result of the network's advertisement for the program.
(advertisement misrepresent s the program and changes the intended expectations of viewer. This does not cause them not to turn on the 1st episode. Opposite.)

D. If the advertisement that the program's producers favored were used instead of the network's advertisement, almost all of the viewers who tuned in to the first episode would tune in to subsequent episodes as well.
(This may have been true and would have resulted but cannot be assumed for sure.)

E. Most people who become loyal viewers of a program do not miss the program's first episode.
(This sounds like a double negative as the sentence can mean that Most people who miss the program's first episode do not become loyal viewers of a program. We are concerned about what happens after the viewers watch the first program and whether they become loyal viewers or not. We need not assume this.)

Premise 1 : The Advertisement will misrepresent the program what it will be like.
Premise 2: People who watch the 1st program will not watch the subsequent programs due to this misrepresented ad.

Conclusion : Viewer is likely to continue watching program due to this ad selected by TV network, but they may continue to watch the program, if the ad favored by the program producers is aired.

Assumption : The Ad favored by producer will not Misrepresent the program.

POE:

A. Most viewers who tune in to the first episode of the program will do so because of the network's advertisement for the program- Out of scope
B. The advertisement that the program's producers favored would not have grossly misrepresented what the program would be like- Reword of the assumption what we came up.
C. Most people who tune in to the first episode of the program and become loyal viewers will not have tuned in to the first episode as a result of the network's advertisement for the program- Out of scope- we dont care about the loyal viewers.
D. If the advertisement that the program's producers favored were used instead of the network's advertisement, almost all of the viewers who tuned in to the first episode would tune in to subsequent episodes as well- Present relevant info but not the exact assumption what we are looking for.
E. Most people who become loyal viewers of a program do not miss the program's first episode- Out of scope.


For choosing between the B and D, we can do the negation test select between these two.

If we negate B- The conclusion is doesn't hold true.

on the other hand, while negating D- nothing happens to the conclusion.

Article on Negation test

So the answer is B


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Sure, this is a LSAT question.



The most relevant answers are B and D as Gnpth pointed out. What helped me to spot the right one is the semicolon that divides the the last two clauses. A semicolon, among other functions, join two related independent clauses of equal emphasis; this helped me identify that the last sentence is just statement that adds information to the real focal point of the passage and that it is not the focal point itself.

When I am down to two answer choices I honestly seek to spot any detail that can eventually be helpful. In this particular case that semicolon is what "did" for me.
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The missing link is between the "Network's advertisement" and the "advertisement favored by the Program's producers. When the author states that the "network's advertisement" was grossly misinterpreted and would not attract the right crowd he is assuming that the other advertisement would attract the right crowd."E" is not an assumption at all. It could be an additional fact .
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Premise:
People who tune in to the first episode based on false expectations will be unlikely to watch subsequent episodes.
Conclusion:
The advertisement favored by the program's producers would more effectively attract the sort of viewers likely to continue watching the program.

Apply the NEGATION TEST.
When the correct answer is negated, the conclusion will be invalidated.

B, negated:
The advertisement that the program's producers favored would have grossly misrepresented what the program would be like.
Implication:
People who tune into the program would have FALSE EXPECTATIONS.
According to the premise, people with false expectations are unlikely to watch subsequent episodes -- invalidating the conclusion that the producers' ad would attract the sort of viewers likely to continue watching the program.
Since the negation of B invalidates the conclusion, B is an ASSUMPTION: a statement that MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to hold.


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Wow, I spent so much time analyzing this question as it seriously knocked me off. I got it wrong numerous times and spent like a lifetime analyzing the prompt.

Only when I realized that the prompt compares two different sets of ads i.e TV network's and Producer's. Then the question becomes so easy.

Great question!!! This is how GMAT tricks you lol.