TVSquad

Now there's two words you hardly ever see if the same sentence: "psychics" and "reality."

But get ready for a new reality show that will attempt to find that most gifted psychic in America! The show, Gifted, is going to be produced by Friends co-creator/producer Marta Kauffman. Each psychic will go through a series of tests - mind reading, Tarot card reading, other things that psychics do well - and the winner will win...well, I have no idea what they'll win. What should the winner of an American Idol for psychics win? A million dollar contract to do...what exactly? There will be a panel of expert (?) judges and the contestants will probably all live together in a house, a la Big Brother. Or, in this case, The Surreal Life.

Of course, I don't really understand the whole concept. If these people are truly psychic, shouldn't they know ahead of time whether they're going to win or not?

[via TV Tattle]

I remember seeing this the night that it happened, in 1973: Uri Geller trying to perform some psychic "feats" on The Tonight Show, and host Johnny Carson (a magician himself and someone with a low tolerance for hucksters and hoaxes) making sure he can't fool anyone with a trick by changing the items on the table. This is a slightly edited version, but it's very telling. Geller actually gets a little irritated at Carson, at one point even mentioning that Carson was supposed to ask him the questions they agreed on before the show. Doc Severinsen sits there waiting for Geller to do something amazing, but it never comes.

That's magician and professional debunker James Randi narrating the clip. I think this is part of a larger documentary that was show on television several years ago.

[via Boing Boing]