TVSquad

As far as we can tell, here are the responsibilities for hosting Deal Or No Deal:

1. Repeat the painfully obvious rules of the game over and over and over.

2. Loudly announce the names of pretty ladies holding suitcases.

3. Pretend that a game requiring absolutely no skills whatsoever requires skills when choosing numbers in a logically devoid random order.

4. Convince fully-grown adults that you're not pretend-talking on the phone to a villainous, money-hungry banker.

5. Never ever touch the palm of another human being.

On tonight's episode of Dateline on NBC (7:00 p.m.), Today security consultant Bill Stanton will set up hidden camera scenarios that will test how people respond to suspicious situations. Wild Bill: Breaking and Entering, hosted by Rob Stafford, will follow Stanton as he attempts to break into cars, homes and a hotel room right in front of people using the same techniques as seasoned criminals.

Stanton's conclusion is that people aren't as aware of their surroundings as they should be. At the risk of sounding stupidly optimistic, I think another way to look at it is that most of us assume our fellow human beings are usually working with the best of intentions. People should be smart, of course, but I like to assume that people are basically good.

One last thing: the press release describes the episode as an "investigation." Is it really an investigation when you're just creating fake scenarios?

HBO has found a home for another of its critically-acclaimed series in syndication. Bravo is picking up proto-reality series Taxicab Confessions in which cab passengers are secretly filmed by hidden cameras. The show's closing credits always feature the poor, drunk souls signing their images away to the charming driver who just elicited the most torrid possible version of their life story. The series will make its Bravo premiere on Friday and get a big promotional push with a New Year's Eve marathon. So, if you're not stumbling drunk out of a cab yourself, you can watch people do it on TV.