This article is based a on research project on the communication model adopted by Chinese talk shows which, together with other new genres, allegedly reflects liberalization and diversification of Chinese television in the post-Mao, post-Deng eras. However, after two months of research activities including field visits, interviews and texual analyses, we have found that Chinese television is still characterized by those formal qualities which discourage interaction with the common people and reject their participation. The first part of this article consists of a number of observational generalizations about the nature of Chinese television characterized by what we see as a series of contradictions which it is experiencing at the present time. These contradictions, we believe, determine the communication model adopted by Chinese television. In the second part, there is a case study involving formal analysis of two typical sports talk shows. We intend to scrutinize selected talk shows to demonstrate how their communication model, which we believe is common to that of many other different television genres, fulfills the mandate of Chinese television to represent the government and business interests. This paper concludes with an observation that Chinese television is less liberalized formally than might be indicated by its seemingly diverse generic contents.