January 25, 2008 - Fox and P.T. Barnum Agree Again... For Now

Legendary circus showman P.T. Barnum once reportedly insisted, "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

In a related story (as Conan O'Brien might set up the segue), the Fox series Moment of Truth drew huge numbers in its prime-time debut Wednesday.

How huge? It retained 94 percent of its American Idol lead-in, that's how huge. It drew an estimated 23.2 million viewers, that's how huge - easily beating The Sarah Chronicles as the highest-rated series premiere of the season. Apparently, people asking "How low can TV go?" were willing to turn to Fox in search of an answer.

My guess, and my hope, is that this novelty will fade rather quickly. Joe Millionaire was hot, too, for a while - and you don't have to watch Moment of Truth too long to realize how empty it is. And how essentially, inescapably repugnant.

"Is there an honest person left in America?" asks host Mark L. Walberg (not the actor Mark Walhberg, who's talented). Then this host, like a prime-time Diogenes, sets out in search of truth... by asking contestants to respond to increasingly embarrassing true or false questions, as their spouses, friends and/or loved ones sit nearby and cringe.

The gimmick is that all these questions, and more, already have been asked of the contestants previously, as part of a lie detector test. So the reality is, even though viewers don't know what's coming, the contestant sure does.

Then there's the problem of empathy. On Wednesday's premiere, for example, one of the contestants was asked, "Have you ever hit someone else's car and not left a note?" He admitted that he had - several times! - and when his "Yes" answer matched his previous lie-detector reply, the studio audience applauded.

Why? Because he came one step closer to winning some money? Or because he's such a jerk? And after a few replies like that, does the audience start rooting for the contestant to fail?

I sure did. But my dreams are bigger. I'm rooting for the whole show to fail.

Based on the ratings for the premiere, it's got a long, long way to fall - but I have faith. Faith in the short shelf life of novelty items, faith in the belief that bad reality shows eventually seep to their own barrel-bottom levels - and faith, in the end, in the intelligence of the American public.

Fool us once, shame on Fox. Fool us too often, though, and the blame will have to shift.