Fox's ''Moment of Truth'' inspires a look back at new lows in broadcasting -- vote for how shameful they actually were. (Also: Aren't you glad the writers' strike is over?)
By Annie Barrett | Feb 14, 2008
Moment of Truth (Fox, 2008)
Fools sit in a hot seat (that should really be animated according to how much sweating/fidgeting is going on) and take way too long to answer increasingly ''scandalous'' questions about their usually uninteresting personal lives. It'd be easier for host Mark L. Walberg to just ask everyone, ''Are you a total $$$$ing idiot who will do anything for cash?'' But 1,000 consecutive contestants truthfully answering ''Hell yes!'' would make this crapfest even more tiresome than it already is. That sentence was... ... ... ... ... ...true.
Jail (My 9 Network, 2008)
It's no surprise that the creator of an original new-low show, Fox's COPS, is behind this series, which this season included ''exclusive footage'' of O.J. Simpson doing time after his 2007 armed-robbery arrest. As a cute TV touch, O.J.'s placed in room #32 widely considered the NFL MVP of Clark County Detention Center Holding Cells.
Kid Nation (CBS, 2007)
Hey, let's exploit children! Forty kids, aged 8-15, attempt to form a functioning society on a glorified movie set in Bonanza City, New Mexico. At least the casting was apt: Nearly all of the kids excuse me, ''pioneers'' had very early in life developed the typical reality-TV-star trait of being really annoying. I'd honestly rather watch a live-action version of the hit 1985 floppy-disk game The Oregon Trail.
Hey Paula! (Bravo, 2007)
This completely unnecessary series, centered around a pop stars with a lot to say but only .1 percent of it coherent, only made Paula Abdul look exactly how viewers like our poor TV Watch-ers Josh Wolk and Michael Slezak felt after watching it: stupid, crazy, and sad.
(Britney and Kevin: Chaotic was listed here, too, but out of respect for her and in light of what's going on, I'm not including it in the list. I edited the description to reflect the omission)
The Anna Nicole Smith Show (E!, 2002)
Here we had the same ''Follow That Loon'' concept as Hey Paula!, but with less talent and more poodle-on-furniture humping. Producers went out of their way to make Smith who at the time was overweight, broke, and often slurry seem as pathetic as possible. In the wake of Smith's 2007 death, recalling the lavish TV attention heaped onto her troubled life is more than a bit eerie.
By Annie Barrett | Feb 14, 2008
Moment of Truth (Fox, 2008)
Fools sit in a hot seat (that should really be animated according to how much sweating/fidgeting is going on) and take way too long to answer increasingly ''scandalous'' questions about their usually uninteresting personal lives. It'd be easier for host Mark L. Walberg to just ask everyone, ''Are you a total $$$$ing idiot who will do anything for cash?'' But 1,000 consecutive contestants truthfully answering ''Hell yes!'' would make this crapfest even more tiresome than it already is. That sentence was... ... ... ... ... ...true.
Jail (My 9 Network, 2008)
It's no surprise that the creator of an original new-low show, Fox's COPS, is behind this series, which this season included ''exclusive footage'' of O.J. Simpson doing time after his 2007 armed-robbery arrest. As a cute TV touch, O.J.'s placed in room #32 widely considered the NFL MVP of Clark County Detention Center Holding Cells.
Kid Nation (CBS, 2007)
Hey, let's exploit children! Forty kids, aged 8-15, attempt to form a functioning society on a glorified movie set in Bonanza City, New Mexico. At least the casting was apt: Nearly all of the kids excuse me, ''pioneers'' had very early in life developed the typical reality-TV-star trait of being really annoying. I'd honestly rather watch a live-action version of the hit 1985 floppy-disk game The Oregon Trail.
Hey Paula! (Bravo, 2007)
This completely unnecessary series, centered around a pop stars with a lot to say but only .1 percent of it coherent, only made Paula Abdul look exactly how viewers like our poor TV Watch-ers Josh Wolk and Michael Slezak felt after watching it: stupid, crazy, and sad.
(Britney and Kevin: Chaotic was listed here, too, but out of respect for her and in light of what's going on, I'm not including it in the list. I edited the description to reflect the omission)
The Anna Nicole Smith Show (E!, 2002)
Here we had the same ''Follow That Loon'' concept as Hey Paula!, but with less talent and more poodle-on-furniture humping. Producers went out of their way to make Smith who at the time was overweight, broke, and often slurry seem as pathetic as possible. In the wake of Smith's 2007 death, recalling the lavish TV attention heaped onto her troubled life is more than a bit eerie.
But at least I accept the fact that trash tv entertains me!
