Fox's 'Moment of Truth' Puts Players in the Hot Seat
New reality show gives up to $500K to those who can endure extreme embarrassment
Jan. 23, 2008 — -- "Is this the prettiest girl you've dated?"
"Do you believe you are better-looking than all of your friends?"
"Have you ever thought your parents would be better off if they were divorced?"
What if you're asked those questions in front of that girl or those friends or parents?
That's the setup for "The Moment of Truth," Fox's latest train-wreck reality show, premiering tonight (9 ET/PT) after "American Idol." It promises $500,000 cash to contestants who can withstand escalating embarrassment by honestly answering 21 questions, based on earlier off-camera responses they had given while strapped to a polygraph.
"This should be the easiest game show. They know all the questions, and technically they know all the answers," says Fox reality chief Mike Darnell. "But what seems to be easy becomes extremely hard and painful, to answer question after question in a truthful manner in front of your family."
Darnell is over the moon about the show's prospects.
"I'm very, very optimistic. I believe it's going to be a smash," he says. "It just has the right ingredients of controversy and provocativeness. I think the entire country is going to be all over this show the minute it airs. This is the best thing I've had since 'Joe Millionaire' in terms of controversy." (Both shows share a host, Mark L. Walberg.)
"Truth," created by Howard Schultz ("Extreme Makeover," plastic surgery edition), already has been sold in 26 countries and has aired in the U.K., Germany and Colombia, where it was yanked after a woman confessed to hiring a hit man to kill her husband. (Local producers never told the police.)
"People may think this is the end of Western civilization, but I believe the truth does set people free," Schultz says. The show "will start some kind of water-cooler dialogue about telling the truth: What does that mean? How would we have answered? A lot of these people seem to really believe they didn't have anything to hide."
Of course, almost everyone does.
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