Spoofing the notoriously "rigged" game shows of the 1950s, the weekly Dirty Rotten Cheater was, accordingly to network publicity, a paean to "lying, cheating, and insincerity." On each episode, six players were called upon to answer pop-culture questions for cash prizes -- and, simultaneously, the players tried to expose the "cheater" deliberately placed in their midst, who had been given the answers in advance by the producers. Since most of the questions required subjective rather than factual answers (e.g. "How much should a man spend on a date?"), it was blatantly obvious that someone was privy to inside information -- but not always obvious as to who that person was. Hosted by comedian Bil Dwyer, Dirty Rotten Cheater premiered on PAX on January 6, 2003.
by Hal Erickson
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