Thursday, January 24, 2008

That Answer is...

The Moment of Truth premiered last night on none other than Fox and as Sean commented, he was glad he DVR’d it. I have to agree with him. With most of these shows, they do a great job in stretching out the length of time between question and answer and love throwing in the tried and true, “We’ll find out……..(pause 10 seconds)….right after the break”. Then the audience starts to groan…even though it is a taped show and they have to wait like 4 seconds before they start taping again. Anyway…I have to admit that I could probably DVR the show every week and watch it. Usually I cringe when it starts getting awkward and people start to make a fool out of themselves on national TV but this is different. These people have agreed to sell themselves for the chance at $500,000. And they do it with the loving support of their family and friends sitting ten feet away. Therefore they knew what they were getting into, so I have no sympathy for them once the questions start to roll. Keep in mind that "normal" people do not go on shows like this...so they are either egotistical or feel that being on a game show will propel their acting careers.


The format is pretty straight forward. Before the show, the contestants are asked 50 questions while being strapped to a lie detector. They are then asked 21 of the questions on the real show. They are asked in money stages. You have to answer 6 questions truthfully before you win $10,000. Then 5 truthful answers will get you $25,000…and so on until one truthful answer will get you $500,000 and your family pissed off at you (if you still have a family by the end of the show). The cool part is after you answer a question a robot chick says “That answer is….True/False” (say that in a robot chick voice). Alright, it’s not that cool, but I am trying. Nothing major was reveled last night…except that some former football player sneaked a peak at his teammates in the shower. BFD. The tool that is on there now it was reveled has a huge gambling problem…I wonder why he was picked as a contestant? Next week one of his kids ask him, “Have you gambled away one of your kids college funds?”

Mark L. Walberg (not to be confused with Marky Mark) is the host and does a decent job. The show is being produced in 24 countries so it is a fairly popular format. It was created in Columbia and actually caused a little trouble down there. It was pulled off the air after a contestant was asked, “¿Usted ha empleado siempre a alguien para matar a su marido?", for you non-Spanish speakers, "Have you ever hired someone to kill your husband?” She couldn’t lie and said yes…but the good news is that she won $50,000. What’s the big deal…so what if she put a hit on her husband…who hasn’t? So now the Colombians will have to make due with the dubbed over American version that has lame questions. Sorry Colombia.

If you didn’t catch it last night then I think it is worth the space on your DVR for at least one show. I will probably give it another couple episodes before I delete the season pass. This might have to be one of those “guilty pleasure” shows…even though it might mark the start of the destruction of civilization as we know it.