“The Moment of Truth” Produces the Most Awkward Jackpot Win Ever
News of the impending and rumored syndicated revival of Fox’s infamous game show, The Moment of Truth, have us looking at clips of the show on YouTube. The show taped a full third season but because ratings started to slide a little and there were no time slots available, the show just drifted away without anyone seeing anything from the third season. Until now. If you watched the show, you know how personal and uncomfortable the game can get quickly. Want to know what the final question, the 21st question, looks like? It happened during the third season, and you’ll finally get to see it.
The story is that the show sold overseas and some episodes were screened abroad, but America never saw them. During one of the episodes, a contestant, Melanie Williams, became the first person ever to go for all 21 questions and win the $500,000 top prize. Melanie grew up in a secretive polygamist community. Melanie said, “I was attracted to the lie detector show “The Moment of Truth” because I was tired of everyone in polygamist communities lying about what really goes on behind closed doors in these isolated communities. I wanted to go on the lie detector and be a voice for the young girls who are pressured to be married before they figure out who they are.”
As you can image the 21st question is beyond brutal. If you’re interested, take a look below. We occasionally upload awkward or uncomfortable moments. I think this may rank at the very top. Regardless, though, I like Melanie and understand her reasoning for wanting to go on. I feel bad that her episode didn’t air and she didn’t get to spread her message more, but hopefully some people are at least seeing it now. She seems genuinely nice and she has a legitimate reason for being on there. For a show that prized itself on being extremely exploitative towards people’s personal relationships, this is one of those episodes where you can actually understand why someone would consider going on and you can sympathize.
By the way, for those interested, here are some of the questions she faced, according to a comment:
- Could you ever forgive your father for trying to marry you off as a teenager? yes
- Did you know any under-age girls who are married to adults? yes
- Do you think your father was wrong to set you up on a date with a 73 years old man when you was a teenager? yes
- Do you think your mother will ever accept you leaving the community? no
- Did you feel like you were dad’s favorite girl? yes
- Do you think your father could’ve done a better job protecting you as a child? yes
- Do you feel like your dad’s life style ruined your childhood? no
- Do you find anything appeling about men who marry more than a woman? yes
- Do you think your mother tried to brain wash you as a child? yes
- Did you love any of your stepmothers more than your biological mother? yes
- Do you love all of your 38 siblings? yes
- Do you feel like the black sheep? yes
- Did you do any drugs outside tha community? yes
- Did you lie about the number of your sexual partners? yes
- Did you see guys give minor girls booze in the community? yes
Wow, that was quite a horrible question, no wonder it’s the biggie. Sometimes a lot of the game is putting very complex matters into a single sentence and asking for a yes/no response, which is what I would say Q21 here was.
Most disturbing “game show” moment ever. Outing your dad like that for half a million dollars…only in America and only from FOX.
And if I understood, if America had never seen this episode, that means Melanie Williams has never really won the$1/2 million ?
More horrible …
They probably still gave her the $$ only some shows (mostly reality shows) have the clause about if it dosent air you dont get the $ but it did technically air just not in the US
As far as I know, the usual clause is that the contestant(s) get the money ASAP after the episode airs (in the case of games which are interrupted and continued on the next episode, it’s the last of the episodes in which they appear) OR it’s decided that the episode will not air. I recall hearing about a US Deal or No Deal episode which was never aired, but the contestant got their check at roughly the same time as the one who came immediately after them in taping order.
I’m assuming other questions established the fact that the father was a bigamist, based on the explanation he made at the end of the clip. Still, very cringe-worthy…..
Melanie Williams started a blog about this back in January but, as of now, has only posted once…
http://thefreedomdrive.blogspot.com/2011/01/moment-of-truth-melanie-williams.html
She does appear to be responding to comments from readers, and someone has asked about whether she received the prize money.
Unbelievable.
And I know that, if she ever reads it, she might not like what I said.
What her father (and many like him) did is disgusting and should’ve gotten them locked up with the keys thrown away.
I do hope this show never sees air again.
Why all are of the shows from the past coming back? First Fear Factor and now The Moment of Truth.
At this rate, we should see Greed, Twenty-One, Weakest Link and Winning Lines return to television soon as well. =D
Weakest link wont be comming back even the britts are losing theirs…but winning lines DOES need to come back i loved and missed that show
Maybe not Winning Lines per se, because the first half of the show is dismal. But I would love to see a new front game format and the Wonderwall as the bonus round.
Greed was a good show as well, I’d like to see that one come back.
I am amazed you found this video and even more amazed that Fox sold some of the unaired episodes of season 3. Can you tell me how you found out that some were sold and if so where I might information about which episodes actually aired oversees? Do you have any names of other persons whose epidsode aired oversees? Thank you!
As I watched this clip, I STILL do not understand why any network would pick up this degrading and humiliating show for a new season. In terms of game show that are painful to watch, this show is right down there with “The Chamber” and ABC’s “National Bingo Night”.
National Bingo Night was a horrible idea, but it can’t hold a candle to the c***fest that was “The Chamber.”
Seriously . . . on top of one of the worst concepts in game show history, it had some of the worst production values of all time.
Are you kidding? The National Bingo Night with the Indian referee jovially stating “NOOOO BINGO!” That made it totally awesome!
Awesome and tense show. We can’t really blame the show itself because it’s the contestants that make the show. Anyway, I’d love to see it come back. Jerry Springer hosted the British version of the show.
Exploitation aside, what I don’t like about the show is its promotion of lie detectors. Such machines have proven to be unreliable and unscientific, in fact lie detector findings are inadmissible as evidence in court. Also, there are cases of innocent people adversely affected due to lie detector findings, while proven criminals have managed to pass lie detector tests.
Anyway, I have read about polygamist FLDS cults in Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven and it is just disturbing. I’m glad to see this being exposed because only then can it be called out. The Mormon Church calls homosexuals deviants and works under the table to have them removed from the Boy Scouts, and meanwhile, this real sexual deviance is going on and the church denies any connection to it.
That is EXACTLY the kind of question I expected for the final question.
That is a criminal question, a social-pariah question, and a life-destroyer.
That’s worse than the question which got the show taken off the air in Colombia (IIRC) when the contestant revealed that her husband put a hit man out on her.
As such, I hope this is just a rumor and does not come to fruition.
On the other hand, it may very well be necessary to reveal this sort of information because, if someone takes a hit on your life, should it remain hidden?
This and Fear Factor are the kinds of shows we don’t need. Jeopardy didn’t have people doing that and somehow it gets ratings.
As dark and disgusting as this show is, I’m glad someone was able to use it for a more noble purpose.
[...] It’s too bad real lie detectors haven’t advanced to the intimidating levels shown on TV — there are dramatic as well as comedic possibilities, as you’ll remember if you saw the canceled show on Fox a couple years ago, which I believe was called “When Lie Detectors Attack.” [...]