Clearly the idea for this was developed without the waste of even one brain cell.
CBS’ new reality game show from Ashton Kutcher, “Game Show In My Head,” would be better titled, “Lame Show In My Seat,” because clearly the idea for this thing was developed without the waste of even one brain cell.
The show, a Brit import which seems to have died there before it had a chance on the air, is a variation of Kutcher’s “Punk’d” but without the laughs, the celebs or the fun. Instead, the casting call asked for “everyday people who are ready for a little fun in extraordinary situations.”
If the first two episodes are any indication, the “everyday” people seem way too polished when they go out into the street looking for fun, by having other everyday people do dopey things for them. But more about that later.
Each half-hour show, which seems more like six hours, features one everyday person on the street wearing an earpiece from which they are given instructions from host Joe Rogan (“Fear Factor”).
Rogan, back in the studio with a live audience, instructs the person in the street to ask strangers to do things like give them their phone numbers in front of their spouses.
First up is a woman named Shalisse Pekarcik, a personal trainer and cheerleading coach who you just know was a communications major in college and spent endless hours doing college TV shows.
This “everyday” person seems to know precisely how to talk to a hidden camera, mug for the unseen audience without going into full Jennie McCarthy, and joke with the host like she’s doing a standup report for MTV.
It just smells wrong.
Same with the second episode featuring a guy named Craig Scime, who is the equally polished male equivalent of Pekarcik.
Trust me – real, everyday people do not know how to make eye contact with a hidden camera. In fact, even pros have a hard time with that one.
But Kutcher & Co. seem to have found the two everyday people who are not just expert in it, but manage to be articulately camera-savvy while under the silliest situations.
They’re told that if they can get strangers to perform the assigned tasks, they will win $5,000 in each round – up to $50,000. But even when Pekarcik and Scime fail, they seem to get endless other chances.
One gag that really does work well (for us viewers, I mean) is when the beautiful Pekarcik manages to get a guy she picks up on the street to stand in as her groom because, she says, her groom bailed at the last minute. I don’t blame him.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but you’d need rocks in your head to really love “Game Show In My Head.”
“Game Show In My Head” Tonight at 8 on CBS