What Are Your TV Guilty Pleasures? Mine Is The "Moment of Truth"

I have a confession to make: I watched Fox's Moment of Truth last night. I detest the program but I felt the need to watch the special and watch a married couple's life be potentially destroyed by her answers about being in love still with an ex-boyfriend, that she felt he (the ex) is the one she wish she could have married and that she has had sex with him after she got married.

I wanted to see how far they would take this deplorable show and now I worry whether the husband should be put on suicide watch. It's just a matter of time until shows like this lead to someone killing themselves or others. By the time the credits came on I felt like I needed to take a shower and wanted to give the host, a blowhard speaking of how some truths should maybe not be shared, a taste of his own medicine.

There, I admitted it. I'm not proud – very not proud – but I admit it: I watched this program. I helped its ratings and thus its success. Sigh. I think I'm going to go puke.

Shows like this that push the edge are, for me at least, both repulsive yet boy do they pull you in. I still think we're not too far from the day when someone will be executed live on tv and it'll get huge ratings. As an opponent of capital punishment I wonder if people would reject it if they saw how imperfect it is as a solution I can't decide if I find that concept despicable or the perfect medicine for this sick nation.

I also don't think we are far from the day when someone will torture another as people watch. Essentially we're coming closer and closer to proving the Stanley Milgram Experiments correct that people will, in the right conditions, torture another person. The documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, not to mention reality shows of this type, also provided demonstration that we're nearing that point, where people will hurt others because they are told to or because they consider it the right thing to do.

So there's my dirty confession.

Let's hear your confessions, what are your guilty pleasures? Do you watch My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad, which I think would be better titled 'my dad's genitals is bigger than your dad's genitals"?

Back To Top