[IMG:L]The Reality of Wednesday Night
Wednesday’s reality-heavy primetime lineup is something of a crystal ball: This is what every night will look like if the writers strike isn’t resolved sometime soon.
Not that that’s a particularly devastating proposition for a lot of TV viewers.
Between 8 and 10 p.m. ET on the four main networks Wednesday, a startling six shows are of the reality variety, an umbrella under which “competition shows” and “game shows” also fall.
Wife Swap (reality), Supernanny (reality), Power of 10 (game show), American Idol (competition), and Deal or No Deal (game show) are the incumbents during those time slots, with a sixth show, Fox’s Moment of Truth (game show), premiering tonight.
Moment of Truth, hosted by Antiques Roadshow “star” Mark L. Walberg, dusts off the trusty ol’ polygraph machine for use on contestants.
If the contestant answers the incredibly mortifying question truthfully, he or she moves on to the next question; the jackpot is awarded to the contestant brave/honest/desperate enough to reach 21 questions without a fib.
By now you’ve likely seen the promo featuring crying contestants subjected to harsh questioning, and if not, you’ll see it tonight during American Idol commercials. Then you’ll stumble upon Moment of Truth accidentally when forgetting to change the channel immediately following Idol. (Yes, that is why any time slot right after Idol is so coveted.)
Now if only we could hook up reality shows to lie-detector tests…
