The Moment of Truth Fox Show Measures Value of Life's Secrets

The new Fox Network television game show The Moment of Truth is the latest in the progression of reality game shows. Not quite to the step of watching capital punishment in action, this game show does comes close in a cutting-off-your-gonads sort of way.

Host Mark L. Wahlberg is certainly no stranger to digging deep into people's souls, as he did on Temptation Island and tried to untangle the human messes on there.

In the first show I watched, a self-proclaimed gambler (seemed appropriate) took the hot seat and answered intimate questions about his girlfriend. He answered sensitive money and morality questions that made his boss (who sat in the audience, too) squirm, and you knew by the look on his face, the boss was considering sending the gambler to the unemployment line.

Perhaps it's OK to watch other people play with their lives like this, the secrets of their lives revealed before a studio audience, the key players in their lives, and of course, the millions of voyeuristic viewers (like myself). But what does it really take to sit yourself down in that hot seat? The most I believe, anyone can win on this show, is $500,000. Is it worth it to reveal that yes, you have made advances to one of your girlfriend's friends. Is it worth it to reveal that yes you have smuggled (drugs) into America (even though you show obvious remorse for this serious lack of judgment).

And what if the lie detector decides to short out and reveal to the audience and your family members that you are, in fact, lying. Would anything short of a miracle make them really believe in you then? You against a machine, no matter how feminine and forgiving it might sound?

There are six levels of questions, each question becoming harder than the next. Ever steal from your mother? Better fess up now, because she's sitting twenty feet away from you. If you answer falsely just once, you are booted off, no money won. This show will certainly untie some family knots, but perhaps forever, even if the body in the hot seat tries to proclaim the whole thing a fraud.

It's a dangerous game people are choosing to play with their lives and the lives of those closest to them. It's hard to imagine anyone in their right mind willingly facing a firing squad, especially when that firing squad is actually your mother, your father, your sister, your lover, your boss, your best friend...

Still, it makes for engaging and interesting television viewing. It makes us normal folk in the audience believe our own personal demons are maybe not so bad, especially if some people unearth them so easily with the hopes of earning some cash. Perhaps some people like this modern-day Scarlet Letter placed on them. A chance for renewal, for redemption - coming clean because it (selfishly) feels good. But, seriously folks, at what cost?