Fox’s new game show, The Moment of Truth, degrades what’s left of America’s ability to speak truth.  The premise of pitting people against a lie detector while answering a series of 50 personal questions held some interesting promise, but after being unable to sit a whole hour of the premier show I have to wonder how long it will remain on the air.

Admittedly American’s on the whole have a perverse enjoyment watching others suffer and they can probably find it in great droves if they choose to tune in.  In the half hour of the show that I watched I saw a former NFL player field thirteen questions that became increasingly more personal and less suited for an audience.

From the advertisements I have to admit that I was expecting such a happening with the show, but then I was expecting this poor smuck to be put onto the polygraph machine while on the air.  Instead he was given these 50 questions off air and hooked to the lie detector and on air he would have been given 21 of the questioned he’d answered, answered them again with a yes or no and then told by a computerized persona that his answer was deemed true or false before hand by the original test.  It is this process where the show loses its potential and perhaps even half its audience.  Especially since the computer ever has a tension building time delay in it!

Adding insult to injury, the person within the hot seat suddenly has three members of friends or family watching and listening to his answers intently while on the stage with him.  Perhaps what’s more agonizing and anticipatory for the person answering these questions is the fact these three people can choose not to hear the answer after the question has been asked.

While the premise was intriguing, the half hour I blew watching this show could have been spent better wasted.  One thing is for certain I would not want to be the person who took that test and have to answer for the answers given to the people that I loved.

I give it a month to last, and it doesn’t even rate one penguin.