Would we lie to you? The following are true stories from around the planet — off it, in some cases — about the stranger-than-fiction world of reality TV shows.
* A "mean" game show which encourages contestants to gang up and humiliate each other to win a few thousand dollars is the BBC's biggest light entertainment hit in 10 years and looks set to make the company more than $102.5 million in worldwide sales.
The Weakest Link is about to be sold in at least 10 countries around the world, according to its founder, David Young. At this stage, New Zealand is not one of them.
The hit show features Anne Robinson in dominatrix mode, ticking off contestants for poor performance and forcing them to walk the humiliating "walk of shame" off the show when their team members vote them out for being "the weakest link" if they fail to answer enough questions correctly.
On its first outing on BBC1 prime time an average of 7.8 million viewers tuned in and at times the show beat the ratings for ITV's police drama, The Bill. In its BBC2 daytime slot, the programme is breaking records by attracting more than five million viewers.
The attraction of the programme, according to Dr Glen Wilson, a psychologist, is largely due to the embarrassment of failed contestants. "People have a sadistic streak and they like to see others being humiliated."
He also points to the school-ma'm-verging-on-Gestapo approach of Anne Robinson. "The concept of the superbitch is a turn on to certain males. They like a dominant female ticking them off."
* These days the hush of the night descends on India three hours early. Buses roll away from stops half-empty; cinema tickets go unpurchased; and the only things to be found wandering the pot-holed roads are sacred cows.
In government offices, tenement blocks and upmarket slums, the words "confident?" and "final answer?" can be heard issuing from TV sets.
This is Kaun Banega Crorepati?, India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Since its launch in July the Hindi show has become a national phenomenon. Much of its success is down to host Amitabh Bachchan, India's biggest movie star.
In three months the show has turned around the fortunes of Rupert Murdoch's previously ailing Star Plus channel. Now its rival, Zee TV, is about to launch its own version in what threatens to become a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? war.
The all-important ingredient of Zee's version, Sawaal Dus Crore Ka, is the host. It will be presented by another Bollywood star, Anupam Kher.
In the original show, contestants are given the chance to become a "crorepati" by winning a "crore" which is 10 million rupees ($225,000).
Cultural observers are transfixed by the success of Kaun Banega Crorepati? In a population overwhelmingly poor, part of its appeal is clear.
But, according to Sevanthi Ninan, India's leading TV critic, Bachchan holds the key. "In the movies in his early career, he was an angry young man, on the side of the oppressed. Now he has gone through a process of re-iconisation to represent something aspirational and middle-class," she said. "Though they have said rickshaw wallahs could go on the quiz I've never seen anyone who is not a middle-class face."
* America's CBS network is finding some people willing to go a lo-o-o-o-ong way to spill its Survivor 2 secrets.
An Australian adventurer says he was nearly run off the road and had to battle nettles and mites just so he could post a map on his web site to what he says was the TV show's secret set.
The directions, to a remote gorge about a four-hour drive from the north-eastern Queensland city of Cairns, correspond to other published reports of the Survivor 2 location. Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspapers have published aerial photographs of the area.
The latest alleged security breach came from a fellow called Tim "the Yowie Man," an Australian tour guide who says he is a "mystery investigator."
He said he tried to drive on to the compound but two trucks with security guards nearly forced him off the road. He drove about 32km away, ditched his vehicle and walked along a river to the site.
He foraged for berries, bush bananas and fish. The forbidding territory is home to crocodiles, leeches and the unpleasant mites, he said.
"I wanted to see if I could survive looking for the Survivor site," Tim said.
He said he saw a tent city for crew members and what looked to be a set for a tribal council meeting. A large platform jutted out from a cliff near a waterfall, he said.
CBS, which has tried to keep its outback location under wraps, wouldn't comment on "the Yowie Man's" directions.
The show's first series, about two competing groups cast adrift on a remote island with only a few TV crews for company, was a worldwide hit. The second show begins screening in the US after the Superbowl in January.
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