Moment of Truth

27 May

Posted by Alex Davis as FOX, Show Review, The Moment of Truth

So yes, the show you all love to hate, The Moment of Truth, is back tonight at 8PM ET. We seem to have matching opinions on most shows, but I have a feeling this one will be different. Voice your opinions in our comments and give it your star rating.

Network: FOX
Airings: Tuesdays at 8:00PM ET
Host(s): Mark Walberg
Vote for how many stars you think the show deserves to the right, and then leave a comment!

The Moment of Truth is the most controversial game show currently on TV. The contestant is asked over 50 questions prior to the show. 21 questions are asked, in the order of embarrassing to extremely personal. Each right answer gives the contestant more money and if all questions are answered correctly, the contestant wins $500,000. However, if a false answer is given at any time all money up to that point is lost. The family members that accompany the contestant can hit a button once during the game to change the question.

The Moment of Truth is what it is: a provocative and sometimes (maybe often) sleazy game show, but I’m fine with that. It’s a psychological test more than anything. How much personal information will a person say in order to win money? The main appeal of the show is the human interaction level. Say what you want, but if you even feel hatred towards a contestant, the show is accomplishing it’s main goal. It wants you to either cheer for the contestant or root for them to lose. Whichever you feel, it works in its favor. The set is nice, music is nice, presentation is nice, and Mark Walberg, as always, is outstanding as host. However, there’s just no play along and you can only take so much of it before it becomes too much. There’s only so much sleaze I can take before I even become turned off, and that takes effort. I really wish Mark could get on a nice quiz show like Russian Roulette again. He deserves it for all these gigs.

Rating:

5 Responses

B-W
1
May 28th, 2008 at 10:39 am

I’ve said this in another thread related to this show, but it bears repeating. My problem with the concept isn’t the “sleaze factor.” I can (and so) simply choose not to watch. My problem is that the arbiter of “truth” on this show is NOT the accumulation of facts and/or knowledge to refute (or support) a claim, but merely a “lie detector test.” Such a faulty determiner of “what is true” should NOT be the standard for giving away prizes, let alone the potential damage that could be made to actual lives!
Carrie
2
May 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm

I like the show too Alex, but it’s incredibly frustrating to see the same clips over and over again. My main problem with the format is the repetition and manufactured drama - they don’t need it. A show that fills a time slot of an hour should have more than 25 minutes of actual game play.

That said, I think Walberg is the saving grace of the entire show. He does seem to genuinely cringe when the friends and family end up bearing the brunt of the questions and answers, so at least there’s a human element in every episode.
Greg
3
May 28th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

They give away some of the questions in the preview. It makes the whole thing anti-climactic.

Walberg doesn’t deserve this show. This is better fit with Springer or Povich, who deal with sleaze such as this every day. This shouldn’t happen to a respectable host like Walberg.

If he continually stays with the show, he’ll only ruin his career.
Mark
4
May 28th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

The reason I won’t watch the show is because I think the set-up is totally bogus. I mean, when you get up to the big money and ask a question like “Have you ever cheated on your wife?” I would assume the answer has to be yes. Otherwise they wouldn’t have put the question up there. Why pose a question for $200,000 or whatever when the answer isn’t going to stir the pot?
andrew
5
May 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

The $100,000 answers aren’t stirring the pot enough to cause as much devastation as advertised.

I did not watch this season premiere, and will never watch a full episode again because of how horribly they managed the S1 finale, but I did pop in at the end to see that someone quit at $100,000 AGAIN.

Why, why, why?

I think the only two things won on this show are $100,000 and $0.

If you’re going to make a controversial show, at least hold it together by editing it well. If Maury lasted 60 minutes but had only one paternity result, lie detector test, or secret telling, would you watch every day? Maury owns this, and I thought it would have been the other way around.