Thursday, April 3, 2008

The moment of Turth

Have you seen this show?
I watched it last night and can't believe that this show is number one. I can see how people want to watch it because it can ruin people's lives.

Prior to the show, a contestant is hooked up to a polygraph and asked more than 50 questions; there is no polygraph testing conducted during the actual show. Without knowing the results of the polygraph, he or she is asked 21 of those same questions again on the program, each becoming progressively more personal in nature. If the contestant answers honestly as confirmed by the polygraph, he or she moves on to the next question; however, should a contestant lie in his or her answer (as determined by the polygraph) or simply refuse to answer a question after it has been asked, the game ends and the contestant loses all of the prize money accumulated. For each tier of questions answered correctly, the contestant wins the corresponding amount of money. A contestant may stop at any time before any question is asked and collect the money he or she has won. Although a person may stop after any question, once they hear the question, they must answer it. Honestly answering all 21 questions wins the jackpot of $500,000.

The questions vary, increasing in difficulty and degree of personal nature of the questions. To date, not one contestant has reached the 6th tier. Sometimes, a "surprise guest" - such as an ex-partner or a good friend - will come on the stage and ask a particularly difficult question. Friends, colleagues, and family of the contestant who are gathered near the player have access to a button which can be used to switch out a question once per game, an option which is introduced to them after the third question.

Yesterday while I watched I could not believe some of these answers but also thought about them and thought how I would answer them. This woman was asked several questions some of which were:

On your wedding day were you still in love with an ex boyfriend. Would you move back home to look after your sick father? Have you had sexual feeings for your husbands friends? They had her ex come up and ask if she regreted breaking up wit him? then she was asked if her husband was a better lover than her ex...I know that money means a lot to people but...would you subject yourself to doing it on national television?


While thinking about this show I was thinking about how I would answer some of these questions and I think some would be hard because there is a fine line...I still think of a couple of my exes and still love them very much, in a much different way now then I did back then. I don't think that you can ever forget about someone who you were intimate with on many levels. The relationships in the past build you for the relationship you have in the present. I think that this program asks these questions and it is difficult to answer them because if asked if I love my ex boyfriend I would say yes because a part of me always will but not as intimatly as I did then. If I answered no then it would come out a lie. I think that the people who go on this show need to be strong and trust in their relationship and be able to sit down after and debrief about it with the help of someone else because these questions are ones that could and have broken relationships.

The American public love watching people fail and learning about their intimate secrets we see this in the media and how the paparazzi hound celebrities. We want to know more and more about people and unfortunatley with technology there are many more ways to find out.

SO my question for you is would you want to go on this show for money?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I haven't seen the show, but I think I may have seen a commercial for it. It is kind of scary to think that many North Americans would want to watch something like this. If shows like these rank up there as most popular, what does this say about us as a culture?

I don't think I'd ever want to be a contestant on the show. Even if I were really hard up for cash, I don't think I would do it.

I agree with you about what you said about ex-partners. Great post, D!

Karen MEG said...

I would never do something like that... money isn't worth it. The potential negative effects of doing something like that far outweigh any benefit, I would think.

Crazy what people will watch... like a train wreck or car accident.

Haven't been by your blog in a while, D, hope you're doing well.

Kids are looking great, as usual!

Unknown said...

Hey, D!
I posted a Throwback Thursday post and you're in it :) Thanks for the good times when I still lived in TO.

http://lifeonmanitoulin.blogspot.com/
2008/05/throwback-thursday-26.html

Heidi said...

I saw one episode of "The moment of truth". It looks kinda weird. I heard on the news that some U.K. woman "won" the contest (and won her money) but destroyed her marriage.

How weird is that?