TVSquad

Between the sessions for So You Think You Can Dance and Fringe, FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly happily took answers from the gathered critics. Perhaps the most interesting piece of news he unleashed on us was that the network is officially going to have two development seasons: the traditional one that ends in May with the upfronts, and a new one that ends in December, which will position the network to air pilots in the January/February time frame, a time Reilly called the network's "high season." (Which it is, of course, given the presence of the BCS and American Idol).

In fact, Reilly has eight pilots currently in development for consideration in December, far more than he had for this past May, due to the writers' strike and other reasons. Other interesting bits after the jump.

Part Three: Never Retreat! Never Surrender!

The lessons started in earnest. First was a philosophy that Robert follows in his own life, but that he felt worked perfectly for those seeking to be on reality TV:

Never Deny, Always Reply, Never Ask Why.

He repeated it several times. I won't do that here. Just, uh, read that sentence a few times and you'll get the point.

Essentially, the point of his philosophy was that you need to be open to all things -- you should never say "no" (never deny); you should reply to every request made to you, presumably in the affirmative (always reply), and you should never question the logic of what is being asked of you (never ask why).

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have The Moment of Truth, Jingles and other new shows.

Game shows have been an important part of television since the late 1930s. In 1938, the BBC aired Spelling Bee, a show that is believed to be the world's first game show. In July 1941, CBS Television Quiz made history by becoming the first television game show to broadcast regularly. Since then, U.S. viewers were treated with all sorts of game shows such as To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, Concentration, Name that Tune, The Price is Right, Jeopardy, etc.

Jeopardy!, which premiered in 1964, is one of the most successful and popular game show in U.S. TV history. Its challenging questions and format helped make it a household name. This is why we named our "Primetime game show requiring the most skill" category after it.

In this category, we include 2007-2008 season game shows that air/aired in primetime (Jeopardy! is out of the running since it doesn't air in that block) and that are not reality-type game shows such as Survivor and Big Brother. Shows that come to mind are Duel, 1 vs 100, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and the primetime edition of The Price Is Right. Personally, I don't think Deal or No Deal or The Moment of Truth qualify since they don't require much skill.

Which shows do you think should be nominated for The Jeopardy Award? List your suggestions below!

Now that the upfronts have been presented, it's time to start handicapping the ratings (although Jeff Zucker doesn't think Nielsens matter that much anymore). Nevertheless, some are looking at next fall's schedule and predicting a big-time battle royale on Thursday night at 8 o'clock. Which reality show will emerge at the Nielsen number one -- CBS's Survivor or Fox's The Moment of Truth? According to Hollywood Reporter, Fox is taking aim at CBS. When asked at the upfront about positioning The Moment of Truth -- and Hell's Kitchen right behind it -- on that night was a strategic move, the executive was diplomatic at first. He said Fox isn't looking for a battle; they're doing their own thing. But then said of Survivor, "Look, it's eroding. It's an older show. Its eventually going to give up and were trying to accelerate that."

Hmm, sounds like fighting words to me. The Moment of Truth and Hell's Kitchen are two of Fox's three premiere reality shows, behind only American Idol in the ratings. Anyway you slice it, Thursday night is going to be a night to drive TV fans crazy. While Fox and CBS are leading with reality shows to start the night, ABC will offer Emmy winner and critic's darling, Ugly Betty, NBC will serve up its Emmy winner(s) and critic's faves, My Name Is Earl and 30 Rock, and the CW will bring back the venerable fan fave, Smallville. And that's not even considering what the rest of the networks have planned.

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have SuperNanny, Don't Forget the Lyrics and other new shows.

Shark will swim again -- at least for the rest of this season. The future, however, remains unclear. CBS today announced that Shark will return on April 29 in a new timeslot. The network is switching the L.A. legal drama from Sundays at nine to Tuesdays at nine, where it may benefit from the strong lead-in of NCIS. Chances are that if Shark holds NCIS's ratings -- or improves on them -- that could mean more Shark for fall. If the show stumbles, CBS will likely pull the plug.

Fans of Shark may need to get more militant if they want to keep the show on the air. In a recent story we did about CBS renewals, there was fervent outcries for bringing back Moonlight and The Unit, even Cane. Out of 40 comments, only two came to Shark's defense. It may be a small sample, but still...

Yet another game show premiered last night. This time, it was NBC's Amne$ia hosted by Dennis Miller. This show has a similar premise than FOX's The Moment of Truth: contestants reveal secrets and facts about themselves in order to win money. The main difference between the two: Amne$ia does it tastefully while Moment goes for the ugliest and dirtiest secrets and somewhat doesn't care that your relationships go awry after the airings.

FOX's latest game show The Moment of Truth is not only attracting a lot of viewers but also having the latter ask a lot of questions. Is it faked? Are the contestants actors? Are they really telling the truth? After watching the premiere a few weeks ago (I watched two episodes in total), I particularly wanted to know the impact appearing on the tell-all show had on the contestants' lives. One of TV Guide's reporters decided to seek the truth for us about the lie-detector show.

Even if the premiere of FOX's The Moment of Truth was not as bad as I expected it to be, I didn't watch the following episodes. However, it seemed that enough of you did to warrant the order of more episodes of the intrusive game show.

Friday, the network announced that it had ordered an additional 13 episodes of the "No. 1 new show of the season" (that's how FOX describes the show); thus bringing the complete season 1 order to 25 episodes.

When FOX first announced that it picked up new game show The Moment of Truth, I had my doubts about the show. It seemed too intrusive and risky. When reading Kristin's article about her time in one of the show's promo booths, I got confirmation that the show was mostly heading towards sensationalism. Even if I had my doubts about the show, I had to tune in at least once to see how crappy and creepy the show would turn out to be and how low contestants would agree to go in order to win money.

On January 23rd, FOX will debut its newest gameshow, The Moment of Truth. On the show, contestants will have to answer 21 increasingly personal questions honestly (as determined by a polygraph) to win $500,000. Now, that's a lot of cash, but is it worth revealing your deepest feelings on national television while your family, friends, or spouse sit on stage and heckle you? After trying it out today, I really don't know.

FOX set up a Moment of Truth Booth here in Santa Monica at the Third Street Promenade and let people try out the game in front of shoppers and other passers-by. For those of you who haven't been to Santa Monica, the Promenade is an open-air shopping mall with street performers, restaurants, and sadly, way too many homeless people. I'll give you the run-down of the questions they asked me after the jump.