Does higher transparency to voters affect rhetorical choices in parliaments? We study the effect of televised broadcasts of floor debates on the rhetorical choices in U.S. Congress, focusing on a measure of emotionality constructed using computational linguistics methods. First, we show in a differences-in-differences analysis that the introduction of C-SPAN broadcasts in 1979 increased emotionality in the House relative to the Senate, which did not introduce televised floor debates until later. Second, we report an instrumental-variables analysis, which shows higher expressed emotionality among Congress Members from House Districts where constituents watch more C-SPAN due to exogenous variation in channel positioning. These findings suggest that television has changed the incentives behind rhetorical choices and hint to importance of voters as the new intended audience.