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.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to strengthen the argument?

(A) Wilke & Wilke have produced more new shows for this season than they produced last season.

(B) Most of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year were police dramas.

(C) None of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were not canceled were police dramas.

(D) All of the new shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were canceled were police dramas.

(E) None of the most popular television shows last year were police dramas.

Most of the new shows they produced last season were canceled due to insufficient viewership.
Their new shows are all police dramas, and few police dramas have been popular in recent years.

It is likely that most of the new television programs Wilke & Wilke produce for this season will be canceled.

We are concluding based on last year's data (most of their shows were canceled) that this year too their shows will be canceled.
Another data point is that their new shows are all police dramas and those have not been popular in recent years.

We need to strengthen our conclusion i.e. make it more likely to happen.

(A) Wilke & Wilke have produced more new shows for this season than they produced last season.

This is no reason for cancelations this year. If they produced 8 shows last year and 10 this year, it doesn't make it more likely that this year's shows will be canceled.

(B) Most of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year were police dramas.

But were they all police dramas? Say if of the 8 shows produced last year, 5 were canceled while 3 were not.
Also say of the 8 shows produced last year, 5 were police dramas. Say 3 of these police dramas were those 3 shows that did not get canceled.
It might actually give them a better chance this year with all shows being police dramas.

(C) None of the shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were not canceled were police dramas.

Continuing the example from above option:
So we are talking about our 3 shows above (the shows that they produce last year but were not canceled). None of these 3 shows were police dramas. So the shows that continued to air were not police dramas last year. But were the shows that were canceled police dramas? We don't know. We don't know if they produced any police dramas last year at all. Does not strengthen our conclusion.

(D) All of the new shows that Wilke & Wilke produced last year that were canceled were police dramas.

All 5 shows that were canceled last year were police dramas. So we don't know if all police dramas they produced were canceled but certainly most of them were canceled since most of their shows were canceled. Hence they are doing what they did last year and it does become more likely that most of the police dramas this year will also get canceled. Most suitable out of the given options.

(E) None of the most popular television shows last year were police dramas.
We already know that police dramas have not been popular in recent years.

Answer (D)
_________________

Karishma
Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor

Learn more about how Veritas Prep can help you achieve a great GMAT score by checking out their GMAT Prep Options >