"Cheaters" - Behind the Scenes

For lovers of trash television, the syndicated so-called reality series "Cheaters" is a dream-come-true. The show has a simple "gotcha" concept: Catch philandering spouses in the act on camera.

Each episode includes two or three heartbroken plaintiffs called "clients." Each so-called client "case" is handled by the show's own "Cheaters Detective Agency." According to the show's producer Bobby Goldstein, real-life detective surveillance of each cheater can take as long as several weeks. (Note that the Cheaters Detective Agency is run by a real-life Dallas private investigator named Danny Gomez.)

Joey Greco

"Cheaters" is hosted by Joey Greco, a benign-looking bespectacled gent with a reassuring butter-smooth voice bordering on the smarmy. His overall show persona, however, reflects a true-blue Boy Scout coming to the rescue of each injured spouse.

In each "case", Greco "consults" and commiserates on-air with the "client" while showing the wounded party an incriminating video of his or her significant other in the arms of (usually) a stranger. During the "consultation", the Cheaters camera captures every wince, every horrified tear of the offended spouse as he or she views the act (or acts) of betrayal.

The show's "money shot", however, is the ambush scene where "Cheaters" takes the wounded client to an ambush, usually in a very public place. At this scene, the cheating spouse is nabbed mid-tryst with the other woman or man. What follows is a video blow-by-blow confrontation between the spouses and the other woman or man. Every one of these confrontation scenes is human emotion at its rawest; a real-life danger zone where spouses often can become casualties.

During each confrontation scene, Joey Greco the show host does his best to get a rise or an on-camera explanation from the guilty parties. He's usually surrounded (for good reason) by a burly camera crew and bodyguards. They serve to both shoot the action and fend off any unexpected act of violence.

The most dangerous incident in the series was a tryst that was interrupted on a fishing boat. Unfortunately for Joey Greco, he was stabbed in the gut with a fishing knife by the cheating husband. Luckily for him, the knife didn't touch any vital organs.

According to producer Goldstein, Greco is back on the job and wearing Kevlar protection.

Bobby Goldstein

It makes sense that "Cheaters" was spawned from the unique mind of a former Dallas divorce attorney named Bobby Goldstein. The supreme irony is that the show production offices are located at 4516 Lovers Lane in Dallas in a building that had once housed the "Silver Spur", one of Jack Ruby's nightclubs.

Goldstein, a 51-year-old father of four, actually created the series with Tommy Habeeb, a Corpus Christi native with television production experience. Habeeb, also known by the show name of "Tommy Grand", is 6'3" with a physique to match any member of the burly camera crew. He was also the series host for the first 40 episodes (pre-Joey Greco).

Although "Cheaters" has mostly been shot around metropolitan Dallas, Goldstein has recently opened production offices in Vancouver. He insists, however, that the show will continue to be shot in the United States.

When criticized for the show's tawdry content, twice-divorced Goldstein is quick to describe a positive factor. In an interview, he said, "People become emancipated and liberated from the process."