The Moment of Truth

As most of us know, there is a strike going on in Hollywood. The Writer’s Guild of America has been on strike since November 5, 2007. Since that time Hollywood has been allowed to shoot the existing scripts but nothing new has been written. Many of TV’s popular series have run out of new episodes. Awards shows are being canceled or revamped due to no one being around to write the witty banter of the hosts and presenters. And we’re seeing a glut of reality television in prime time television.

I’m not one to complain. I truly enjoy reality television. Anyone that knows me or has read this blog with any regularity over the last 2+ years knows that. I’ve written about how much I enjoy these programs, particularly those that involve a competition. And you know that I have absolutely no success when it comes to predicting a winner. I’ve only ever gotten one prediction correct in all my years of watching this genre of programming.

Right now my TiVo is chock full of season passes for reality programs. And the series run the gamut in program concepts: CBS’ Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites, NBC’s American Gladiators, Biggest Loser: Couples, and Celebrity Apprentice, CW’s Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants, Fox’s American Idol, Bravo’s Project Runway, MTV’s Gauntlet 3, and Oxygen’s the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. And soon to be added to my TiVo cues will be Big Brother 9, America’s Next Top Model Cycle 10, and Beauty and the Geek.

And for all of you other there wondering where I have the time to watch all of these programs – that’s the beauty for me about reality TV. I can turn it on, turn my attention to other tasks, and still know what is happening. Unlike an hour long drama that requires all of my attention, reality programs are good for entertainment but also allow for multitasking.

Anyway, the point of this post has to do with a program that I’ve watched the last two week’s on Fox called the Moment of Truth. It has to be the most uncomfortable and destructive hour on TV, and I hate to say it but if this is what networks are now turning to due to the lack of scripted programming then I beg of someone to please settle the writer’s strike.

The Moment of Truth was developed from a hit reality show in Columbia called Nothing But the Truth. In this program the contestants, prior to the show taping, are connected to a polygraph and asked 50 questions on a variety of topics, some of which are more personal than others. Then in front of the studio audience 21 of these questions are again asked to see if the person is truthful, with family and friends looking on.

In order to demonstrate how destructive this program can be, only needs only to look at the Colombian version which was ordered to be taken off of the air. A contestant admitted to hiring a hitman to kill her husband and won the equivalent of $25,000 American dollars for telling the truth. But the questions that have been posed have the potential to destroy marriages, family and working relationships, and to develop a general level of mistrust in the live of the contestants.

Here are some examples:

In the first episode the first contestant was a former college football player who was asked if he ever looked at his teammates in the showers, to which he said yes he had. His wife did not seem pleased by that. In addition he was employed as a personal trainer and was asked if he had ever touched a female client more than he was required to. He said no and the polygraph showed that to be a lie. The contestant lost the money that he had won up to that point, but what ramifications could this have with his job?

The second contestant had some embarrassing admissions, such as a former male model he did admit to stuffing his underwear for a photo shoot. But then the show took a nasty turn and got him to admit that he was a gambling addict, that he had lied to his girlfriend about how much money he had lost, that he had stolen money from a job and let it be blamed on a coworker, and that he believed he could not be trusted with his friends’ money. The only saving grace for this guy was when his son came out and asked if he had ever gambled away his college fun, to which he said no and that was the truth. But again, what kind of an effect is this going to have on this man’s relationships with his family and on his psyche?

I implore the people at Fox to please pull this program. I implore the writers and the producers to come to an agreement so that they can get back to work and programs like this one don’t make it to air.

But that’s not likely to happen. In its first airing The Moment of Truth had 23 million viewers – one of the top premieres of the 2007-2008 TV season. I guess the question now is what does this high audience turnout say about Americans as TV viewers?