TBS Is Reviving The Infamous Joe Schmo Show
The Joe Schmo Show is coming back on TBS.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the recent Hollywood writer’s strike is grinding the creation of scripted content to a halt. In response, networks are rushing to create reality television that doesn’t require a script, including Stars On Mars, a celebrity competition show hosted by William Shatner. And just when we thought reality TV couldn’t get any weirder, The Hollywood Reporter reports that TBS is reviving the infamous Joe Schmo Show, a reality program focused on convincing a hapless victim that he is competing on a different kind of reality show altogether.
That idea may sound crazy, but the wild truth is that The Joe Schmo Show was a hit when it first premiered 20 years ago. Originally, it was on Spike TV, a network that mixed reruns of Star Trek with some truly crazy programming. The unconventional reality show proved to be a hit across three seasons, with the most recent season coming out back in 2013.
Part of the appeal of The Joe Schmo Show was that it served as a strange reflection of our cultural love of reality TV. Previously, different seasons of this program would make contestants think they were on different kinds of reality shows. For example, the second season helped to mock dating shows, and fans went crazy when one of the people getting pranked, Ingrid Wiese, not only figured out what was going on but decided to join in on the fun of tormenting her fellow “contestant.”
In case you are wondering, The Joe Schmo Show keeps its main stars in the dark by hiring various actors and improv specialists to help keep the gag going. Sometimes, this included actors who were already big names who could help sell the lie, including Lorenzo Lamas. Other times, it included actors before they became breakout stars, including Saturday Night Live star Kristin Wiig.
The original Joe Schmo Show had a surprisingly high Hollywood pedigree, in large part due to the fact that it was produced by future Deadpool producer Rhett Reese. As for the new show, So You Think You Can Dance veteran Cat Deeley will host both the show we are watching and the fictional show-within-a-show, The Goat, in which a man named Ben thinks he is competing. The final result is likely to be mean-spirited, with a small army of guest stars and improv artists trying to get us to laugh at Ben’s ignorance even as they help keep the ruse alive.
Back when the Joe Schmo Show first premiered on Spike TV, it became a smash hit, and its first-season finale ended up setting records for the network. We can only imagine that TBS is hoping that the return of this controversial reality show will set similar records and help keep viewers tuning in during the writer’s strike. However, only time will tell if this show will be the hit it once was or if the average viewer’s tastes have changed so much that they no longer find the bit to be very funny or engaging.
