How does a TV show make money?

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Where does the money come from? It's easy to say that a show or network makes money when people watch it, but that doesn't answer my question. Who writes out the check, so to speak? Does it come from the general public...is there some tax we don't know about lol? Or maybe it comes from the sponsors? I know that a show might say before a commercial break, "this show was brought to you by...".....so does that mean that the sponsors pay for air time? How do you think ?