Um, there's a Fox News joke to be made here, but who even has the heart anymore?

"I most certainly did not enjoy the relentless teabagging I performed in the basement of The Grape."

i still say screw the whole asking them question part of this show and let us the dressing room afterward! hidden camera style

Where's ConBon?

On the bright side, those numbers indicate that American Idol has taken a huge tumble from its previous ratings high.

It's the stupidest premise for a "contest" I've ever heard. Whatever happened to the role of skill (or even skill with an element of chance) in our game shows? At the rate we're going, we're going to start handing out money just for showing up.

"Eat a small piece of cake in under 10 minutes and win $1 million!" will be the reality hit of 2009.

It was the curiosity factor. It may have high ratings for several episodes or at leats a full season but afterward will sink and be hosted by Meredith Vieira in the morning.

@Furious_George: i can't wait for the poor sucker that gets buttercream frosting!

Socrates: Aah but Gorgias, when is a man fully a man?
Gorgias: When he's virtuous!
Socrates: So tell me, have you ever touched a man inappropriately?
Gorgias: No!
Socrates: Oracle of Delphi says..... lying! You're a big fat homo!
Gorgias: Well, so are you.
Socrates: True dat. Let's make out.

I said this in another thread, but I'll repeat it here because I am bored. The dramatic pause between question and answer "contestants" are clearly goaded into performing by producers is too much to handle. I watched the first segment with my eyes closed most of the time because it was too embarrassing. I'm all for bad TV, but I'm drawing the line here.

I don't watch this show.

Really, I don't! I don't even know when or what channel it's on .... I'm telling you, I've never seen it! Why won't you believe me?

@Pope John Peeps II: That would've been a lot of fun to watch.

@Pope John Peeps II: I'm sorry, but you've left me no choice.

Socrates: What makes a man, Mr. Furious?

Me: (choking on a joint) Excuse me?

Socrates: What makes a man? Is it the willingness to do the right thing, no matter the cost?

Me: That and a pair of testicles, sure.

@Pope John Peeps II: Man, if all Greek plays were actually like this, I so would have continued my Greek and Roman studies.

I shied away from this fare, and instead caught a showing of "Cool as Ice". I think that "Cool as Ice" may have been better.

I would like a gameshow called WE'RE LIARS which gives people money for lying and takes it away for telling the truth. Oh, wait, that's like life. Sigh. I have no endorphins today.

While Studio 60 was one of the most dissappointing shows EVER, Aaron Sorkin's mocking of "reality" TV was really on the money - the vice president for "alternative entertainment" kept getting called VP for illiterate entertainment. Which is fairly apt.

Also, shouldn't "alternative entertainment" be, you know, trannys and furries and sadists? (oh, my!)

@Furious_George: yay! it's like my favorite Flight of the conchords joke!

@Furious_George: Never apologize for Lebowski quotes. Always appropriate.

i saw the show. if the first few questions are any indication, whoever makes it past the $25,000.00 should immediately enter the witness protection program.

@Furious_George: I would totally be on that show-I could do really well on it!

Not on Moment of truth, though.

@billiejeanismylover: What could the $500,000 question POSSIBLY be???

"When is the last time you raped a child?"

This is just taking Jerry Springer contestants and giving them another platform to show their underbellies (and what bellies they are, wow)to America for us to laugh at.
*note: I have not watched, the commercials are quite enough

@lolcait: you know what, i wouldn't be surprised. the first guy got to question 10 i think and had already admitted to checking out other guys' junk in the shower and "doing things that would make his wife suspicious". i was poised to witness his entry into divorcedom, but then he lied and got kicked off like an idiot.

Can't wait for the inevitable mash-up with the copy machine scene from The Wire.

@lolcait: If it's a woman, they should ask her if she ever became sexually aroused while breastfeeding a baby.

Hey, I should write for this show!

"What I care about is it is causing a dialogue about telling the truth."

What a fucking lie.

@BalknChain:

Probably in the back, getting groomed for his/her Gawker column?

@In Other News...: oh, right, interning..

This show is a fake even on its own terms. That personal-trainer guy was clearly determined to tell the truth about everything, no matter how embarrassing to himself or the people close to him. So they tripped him up on a question to which he couldn't possibly have been sure of the answer. Pretty much any personal trainer must wonder whether or not he has touched an attractive client "more than necessary." So even if he genuinely can't remember any situation in which that happened, part of his brain must still think he might have done so at some time or another. That's why he got the "false" reading on the lie detector.

This is a major flaw in using lie detectors in the first place, and it makes the show totally unfair to the contestants (and worthless to viewers). Luckily, the people who go on the show are the sort who'll do anything to be on TV, so I guess it doesn't matter.

American Idol lubes viewers up for crap like this. Yeah!

@TedSez: Yes, and the question for the gambler with the rug (paraphrasing): "Have you ever considered that you might have a gambling problem?" I'd think any moderate gambler could answer, "yes, I've considered it, and the answer is no."

Deception expert Maureen O'Sullivan on Pop Omnivore tells about "duping delight" and how to fool the machine:
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