Reality TV makes Honesty Unethical
The Moment of Truth shows audience what lying gets you.
Fox's "The Moment of Truth" asks contestants embarassing questions that they must answer truthfully for cash, but what do the contestants really walk away with?
The Moment of Truth takes Honesty to an Unethical Level
Reality Television has cashed in on the secret voyeuristic desires of the general public for years. In the olden days of the genre TV execs found placing a bunch of strangers together and see what they would do was more then enough to bring in the ratings, but viewers’ tastes have changed and programs have gotten more extreme in order to keep pace.
“The Moment of Truth” premiered on the Fox Network on Wednesday Jan. 23. The premise of the show is simple. Contestants must answer 21 questions truthfully while hooked up to a polygraph machine to win $500,000.
Prior to being placed in the hot seat on a UFO-esque stage complete with futuristic lighting and daunting music contestants answered 72 questions. The 21 questions asked on air are from the pile of preliminary queries, so in short the contestants technically know what they are getting into.
The questions range from a bit embarrassing to “I should have never done this” debilitating as the prize pool increases. All of this goes on while the contestant’s loved ones sit mere feet away.
At first the loved ones laugh at the answers but as the questions reveal more and more about the person they know so well the laughing stops and obvious embarrassment and anger sets in.
The show will more then likely be a hit and be around for awhile just because the public loves to see people sweat it out like roasted pigs and contestants will continually subject themselves to pain and embarrassment in pursuit of the all-mighty dollar but one must ask; are there really any winners on this sadistic game show?
The first week had two contestants. One was a tall strapping personal trainer who had his wife and other loved ones sitting near by. It was all fun and games when they questions were simple “Have you ever canceled an appointment when you weren’t really sick”, “do you think you’re the best looking out of your friends”, but the questions quickly went south and the wife was no longer amused. He admitted that he didn’t necessarily think he would be married to the blonde bombshell forever and eventually lost the show when he lied about inappropriately touching a female client.
He left without any money, but he did gain a world of marital problems he didn’t have before he stepped onto the stage.
The second contestant, a former alter boy, was forced to admit that he had sexual fantasies while sitting in church, amongst other embarrassing snippets of information. The show ended shortly after he answered the first six questions and he will be back this week for a conclusion. One place he probably won’t be is in church on Sunday having sexual fantasies.
Viewers were only given a taste of the shows true nature. Neither contestant made it past the round of 25k questions and one can only imagine how bad the questions get when the prize nears the 500k mark.
