In a genre filled with countless competitions and challenges, it’s rare to find a truly one-of-a-kind game show. These are trailblazers in the genre, inventive concepts that subvert audience expectations and showcase peoplefighting for a grand prize in ways that viewers have never seen.These are essential innovators of the medium who show the wildly different things that a game show can be - for better, and for worse. When it comes toThe Moment of Truth, created byHoward Schultzand airing onFoxback in 2008, this show’s creators highlight some of the worst aspects of the genrethat led to shockingly dire consequencesfor many of the contestants involved.
ThisTVshow appears intriguing at first; people take a lie detector test and answer questions in front of an audience, getting money for every inquiry answered truthfully. Yet it’s howThe Moment of Truthtwisted this premise that proved truly shocking;the people behind the questions not only included some deeply damaging topics but were seemingly intent on embarrassing each contestant in front of a whole nation of viewers. This is a troublingreality seriesthat led to many real-world issues, and because of how it highlights some of the worst tendencies of a genre that’s meant to be focused on people’s “real lives”, audiences should be grateful that there has never been another show like it.
‘The Moment of Truth’ Awards Your Truth
On its surface,The Moment of Truth’sconcept doesn’t immediately seem that damaging. Before meeting the audience, contestants are hooked up to a polygraph test and asked dozens of questions, ranging from simple questions about their daily lives to some hard-hitting, deeply intimate truths.The machine measures their heart rate to determine which ones they lie about,and afterward, they’re brought out in front of the audience and a group of their loved ones to be asked the same questions, earning money for each truthful answer. While it does implement some interesting mechanisms, the series doesn’t stray too farfrom the themes that this entire genre embodies. It challenges people to be truly “real”, to bare their authentic selves and reap the benefits of opening one’s self up to a viewing audience like so many reality programs do. This is an integral aspect of the entire medium, and the fact that this show decided to commodify it shows a much more straightforward version of the genre like nothing watchers had seen before.
Despite this premise’s seemingly good intentions, so much ofThe Moment of Truthwas flawed from the very beginning. For starters, one simple fact discredits the entire series: polygraph tests don’t work. This machine has been debunked for decades, researchers recognizing that while tracking someone’s heart rate could indicate whether they’re lying in some cases, various factors (a person’s anxiety, their surroundings, etc.) could impact this data and not provide any legitimate results.This already establishes most of the show’s core mechanics as false, yet what really damages what could be an intriguing premise centered around truth is how heavily the show leans into shock-value, not virtue. Every reality series wants to bring out a cast’s genuineness, but other programs make this entertaining by placing these people into truly wild situations, letting their candor flow in response to these circumstances in a way that is both endearing and entertaining. By simply asking people questions,The Moment of Truthfeatures none of that and must rely on the questions themselves to create the riveting drama that viewers at home love so much. Unfortunately for the contestants in this series,that often means questions that could completely ruin someone’s life.
Sometimes, Honesty Isn’t Always the Best Policy
Looking purely at statistics, it’s probably shocking for many modern viewers thatThe Moment of Truthhasn’t been rebooted or that it was canceled in the first place! It had good ratings, was on a primetime network, and the media during that time was abuzz with moments of the show, causing innumerable conversations throughout the country. People were in disbelief over the shocking confessions the series managed to get out of its players. Yet it’s actually those admissions that made it clear the show needed to end; the questions asked by hostMark L. Walbergwere startling to both those watching and the players themselves, contestants being asked extremely inappropriate questions that usually revolved around the people closest to them - who were often sitting right in front of them - and important parts of their lives like their work and friends.These crossed some serious comfort levels, and while one of the show’s main goals was to extract pure truth from its contestants,they led to some life-shattering real-life consequencesthat hurt many of the contestants involved (and the show’s reputation).
From asking competitors if they’d ever made a pass at one of their spouse’s friends, to whether they’d ever stolen something from their work, the series delighted in bringing up the mostincendiary topics for these people to stress over in front of millions of viewers. These were often made so much worse because the producers would bring in friends, spouses, bosses, and other people important to the person, people who would be deeply impacted by the questions being asked, withLauren Cleribeing the prime example ofhow damaging these moments were to everyone involved.
‘The Moment of Truth’ Was One-of-a-Kind - Let’s Keep It That Way
Over the course of her episode, Lauren admitted (among other things) that she’d cheated on her husband, she’d stolen from previous workplaces, and that she believed her ex-boyfriend - who the show called in to ask her this startling question - was the man that she was meant to be with. This onslaught of deeply hurtful truths left Cleri and the family members - including her visibly hurting husband - in attendance absolutely shattered, the couple breaking up soon after and evenWalberg himself stating that he had asked for this episode not to be aired but that the network didn’t listen to him. Cleri came out afterward to apologize for her actions and her regret over embarrassing so many of the people closest to her, with her experience not only revealing the personal disasters this series inflicted on its contestants but how intent Fox’s creative team seemed to be on completely humiliating everyone participating.
For all of its faults, it can’t be denied thatThe Moment of Truthhad a level of honesty that most reality shows can only hope for. It was open about its intentions to the contestants, subjecting them to these uncomfortable questions in the effort of bringing out their genuine truths and spotlighting how being honest can help you by awarding them money. Yet there are more ways to inspire truthfulness than this; countless other programs implement intriguing mechanics to push their contestants that are nothing like experiencing something as baffling and hurtful as this. By trying to make good television while supposedly pushing for “full honesty”,the show crossed moral lines,breaking down boundaries in the worst way possiblewithout caring for the people involved who would eventually have to leave the show and return to their real lives. The series deserves credit for trying to amplify many of the core things that make reality television so astounding, but when it comes to how it went about it, viewers should be glad that no show has ever tried to be as honestly indecent asThe Moment of Truthever since.
The Moment of Truthis Not Currently Available to Stream in the U.S.
