About Nothing But The Truth

Nothing But the Truth was a game show hosted by Jerry Springer. The top prize in this version was £50,000.

Prior to the show, contestants were asked to answer a series of 100 questions while connected to a polygraph (a so-called "lie detector"), but were not informed of the results. Questions were deliberately difficult and/or embarrassing to answer. This is made worse for the contestants by not just having to answer these questions on national TV, but also by having some of their family and close friends there to watch.

During the show, each contestant is again asked up to twenty-one of the questions they were asked offscreen. A voice-over, or occasionally the host, announced whether the answer is "true" or "false", based on the result of the polygraph test before the show. The contestant may continue after certain milestones and keep the money they have won so far; giving an answer deemed "false" results in the loss of all the money.

If they answer untruthfully, the set turns a vivid shade of red, and a brief post-mortem is carried out. Should this happen, no matter what money they had, they lose it all. There are no fallbacks, or consolation prizes. If their answer was correct the contestant can play on for another question worth more money.

Safe Points
At certain points in the game, there are safe points at which the contestant can leave the game, taking with them whatever money that particular safe point is worth.

The safe points and their values are -
Question 6 - £1,000
Question 11 - £5,000
Question 15 - £10,000
Question 18 - £20,000
Question 20 - £35,000
Question 21 - £50,000

Should the contestant choose to play on after reaching a safe point, they must answer all the questions required to reach the next safe point truthfully, or else they lose everything and leave the game.

Difficult Questions
As the show progresses, not only do the questions get increasingly more personal, they also become much more vague. This piles the pressure on the contestant as they must not only worry about the fall-out of the answer they give, but also about how to make sure they truthfully answer a question that may not have a simple yes/no answer.

Comments

1. when is this on

   zara ahmed 29 August 2012

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