The Moment of Truth

The Moment of Truth, Fox’s new game show where people answer increasingly personal questions for a chance to make increasing amounts of money, is not the end of the world. It’s far too dull and far too shallow for that.

The lengths that people will go through to win money and/or be on television are well documented and this show is, sadly, no worse than many of the others where people are wiling to act the fool or reveal intimate details about themselves in front of millions of their fellow citizens.

After relentless hyping the show debuted Wednesday night after American Idol and it just sort of sat there without sparking any real interest (prurient or otherwise.) The game features answering up to 21 questions (culled from 50+ questions answered before the show while strapped to a lie detector) and moving forward as long as the answer given on the air is considered to match the veracity of the answer given while being examined by the lie detector.

It sounds more scandalous in theory than it turns out to be in reality. The show is filled with hokum…portentous music, supposedly “suspenseful” pauses before revealing if the answers are true, “candid” reaction shots from family members and friends onstage, oh-so-empathetic host (Mark L. Walberg...see above)…and while some of the questions are probing the contestants grin, grimace, and preen through the proceedings to the extent that you feel no connection to them. In the end, it all adds up to not much at all.

I will admit that morbid curiosity led me to watch the first episode but nothing I saw makes me all that interested in watching any others.

NBC's Fall Schedule

NBC has become the first network to announce their fall lineup.

The ratings plagued Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip did not, alas, make the cut. Law and Order will be back for an 18^th season (still gunning for that 20-season Gunsmoke record drama series run, the show will be broadcast on Sunday nights after the end of the football season and NBC’s Sunday Night Football games) while Law and Order: Criminal Intent will shift over to the USA Network (with those episodes probably being used on NBC later to take the place of failed series.

The critically acclaimed (but ratings deficient) Friday Night Lights will get a second season…and a move to Friday nights.

Heroes will be “bulked up” with Heroes: Origins, a spin-off series that will introduce a new hero each episode and then allow viewers to vote for which one will be added to the main series during the next season. This will give us 30 episodes of Heroes goodness next season. There will also be 30 episodes of The Office (including 5 hour-long outings) as well as 25 episodes of My Name is Earl.

There is also going to be revival of 70’s cult classic The Bionic Woman. And Lipstick Jungle, the new hipster women in the city series from the writer of Sex and the City, will debut in January following the football season. The series stars Brooke Shields and Kim Raver (late of 24).

The schedule is as follows (new series in capital letters, ER excepted):

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9-10 p.m. Heroes
10-11 p.m. JOURNEYMAN

(Journeyman is the story of a time-traveling newspaper reporter.)

TUESDAY
8-9 p.m. The Biggest Loser
9-10 p.m. CHUCK
10-11 p.m. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

(Chuck is a comedy/spy thriller about a computer geek who becomes a secret agent.)

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. Deal or No Deal
9-10 p.m. BIONIC WOMAN
10-11 p.m. LIFE

(Life follows the adventures of a police detective returning to the force after spending years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.)

THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m. My Name Is Earl
8:30-9 p.m. 30 Rock
9-9:30 p.m. The Office
9:30-10 p.m. Scrubs
10-11 p.m. ER

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. 1 vs 100/THE SINGING BEE
9-10 p.m. Las Vegas
10-11 p.m. Friday Night Lights

(The Singing Bee is a karaoke reality show where contestants must sing the lyrics of popular songs perfectly even after the band stops playing; it will alternate 8-week runs with 1 vs. 100.)

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. Dateline NBC
9-11 p.m. Drama Series Encores

SUNDAY (Fall 2007)
7-8 p.m. Football Night in America
8-11 p.m. NBC Sunday Night Football

SUNDAY (January 2008)
7-8 p.m. Dateline NBC
8-9 p.m. Law & Order
9-10 p.m. Medium
10-11 p.m. LIPSTICK JUNGLE

Deal or No Deal

Deal or No Deal is the first hit primetime network game show since the heyday of Regis and the one-time ratings juggernaut that was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Deal or No Deal (an international success with versions in a couple of dozen other countries) is proudly simple (no questions…trivial or otherwise…other than the titular one), repetitive, shamelessly giddy (the contestants dance, yell, jump, and mug for the camera like they were all in the throes of the biggest sugar rushes you could ever imagine), and strangely addictive.

Howie Mandell, free from the manic silliness that used to punctuate his standup comedy act, is an engaging master of ceremonies who seems to really enjoy his interaction with the would-be “millionaires” who join him on stage.

The game itself is simple…there are 26 briefcases each representing an amount of money from one cent up to one million dollars (the models carrying and opening the cases, each outfitted in identical outfits, are pure window dressing), the contestant chooses one for themselves and then the other cases are opened with breaks in the action during which the mysterious “Banker” tries to tempt the player into quitting by offering sums of money to sell back the chosen case. If the contestant doesn't sell back the case, the amount of money in their case is theirs. A small group of friends and family members are brought onstage to yell and scream and dance and prod the contestant with giddy advice. Not much more to it than that.

As of this writing, nobody has won a million dollars but everybody seems to be having a grand time. NBC is trying to avoid the Millionaire overkill by scheduling the show just twice a week…on Mondays and Fridays…and so far it’s working. It will quickly get old…this sort of show has a short shelf life…but for now it’s entertaining enough (and it doesn’t take itself anymore seriously than that which is cool.)