Pros vs. Joes

In this wide-ranging spoof of reality shows, all of the contestants were professional actors -- except one. Chosen during a nationwide audition, Matthew Kennedy Gould was told that he was going to appear on a reality show titled "Lap of Luxury," in which he would live a sumptuous lifestyle with several other contestants, who would be "eliminated" from the 500,000-dollar-grand-prize sweepstakes at a rate of one person per show. What Gould didn't know was that his fellow players were all following a pre-determined scenario, all knew the outcome of the contest, and none was exactly whom he or she pretended to be. The phonies, all drawn from the reality-TV cliché factory, included The Hutch (David Hornsby), the resident hygiene-challenged jerk; Earl (Franklin Dennis Jones), the grizzled Special-Ops veteran; Kip (Lance Krall), the obligatory gay guy with a heart of gold; Ashleigh (Melissa Yvonne Lewis), the standard-issue "rich bitch"; Dr. Pat (Kristen Wiig), the advice-spouting counselor; Molly (Angela Dobson), the house virgin; Gina (Nikki Davis), the all-around backstabber; and Brian (Brian Keith Etheridge), everybody's best pal. Even the series' host, Ralph Garman, was putting on an act, pretending to be a preening egomaniac more concerned with advancing his career than going about his assigned duties. As the faux contestants were faced with challenges that were blatantly swiped from other series like Survivor and Fear Factor, the question was not whether poor, oblivious Matthew Kennedy Gould would make it to the final episode, but rather, how long it would be before he caught on to the charade. Created for the Spike TV cable service by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, The Joe Schmo Show first aired September 2, 2003.

Spike TV is raising the stakes in the endless quest to discover the truth about the legendary creature known as Bigfoot, the seemingly mythical being that roams forests of the world, avoiding mankind. The network is announcing a new one-hour reality show, 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty, featuring ambitious teams of explorers on a brazen exhibition to unearth real evidence of Bigfoot's existence. The $10 million in cash, underwritten by Lloyd's of London, would be the largest cash prize in television history.

The Dudesons is a reality series following four Finnish friends as they dare each other to perform stupid stunts and crazy antics.

Employees select their own boss.

Two teams of civilians investigate a real crime scene and have 48 hours before they must present their findings to detective Tommy Le Noir, after which Le Noir describes what happened at the actual crime scene, how the real investigators came up with their findings. He evaluates the teams and tells them how well they conducted their investigation.