This TV game show doesn't give away flashy sports cars, tropical vacations or easy cash. Instead, winners on cable TV's "Debt" earn absolution - from credit cards, student loans, car payments, alimony, whatever.
Lifetime's "Debt," which earned a CableACE award last year, could be the perfect game show for a time when Americans are more than $1 trillion in the red, not counting their mortgages.During its 130 shows last season, "Debt" erased some $850,000 of contestant indebtedness. The weekday show (4:30 p.m. Mountain time) began its second season last month.
"What a concept," says host Wink Martindale. "We help the contestants pay for the goodies they've already gone out and bought."
"Getting out of debt in some weird way is almost a new version of the American dream," said executive producer Andrew Golder.
"Since we're attaching the winnings to their debt and personalizing it, a big burden is lifted off their shoulders. It's not just `here's $6,000, go do something.' It's tangible, we know how you got there."
At a recent taping, contestant Antoinette Picon, a 26-year-old attorney from Whittier, Calif., wanted to put a dent in her more than $60,000 in law school loans. Screenwriter Joel Eisenberg, 33, of Glendale, Calif., was trying to pay off $10,000 in coast-to-coast moving expenses. Helicopter pilot Andria Myers, 35, of Long Beach, Calif., hoped to erase $25,000 in flight school loans and another $20,000 from credit cards bills.
Picon said she had no choice but to borrow because law school didn't allow her to attend part time so she could work.
"So you have to take out loans," she says. "Then you have to take out another loan for the $1,500 bar review course and the bar exam itself is $600 and then if you want to have any decent clothes after that you have to go shopping at Nordstrom and it adds up."
"I realize it's a dangerous way to go about things, but it's a symptom of our society, it really is."
A previous contestant, says Golder, wanted to pay off almost $9,000 in travel expenses from following the Grateful Dead around the country for a year. He won almost $18,000.
On stage, Picon, Eisenberg and Myers confess to the audience how they got into debt and are quizzed on their pop culture knowledge. Among the categories: "Family Ties," Sidney Poitier and the rock group the Cars.
Example: "I'm a friendly actress who played tiny Alex's even tinier love interest, Lauren Miller." Answer: Courteney Cox.
OK. Nobody said this was "Jeopardy."
Eisenberg came out the winner and was then asked if he was willing to risk his $3,450 booty in a double-or-nothing final question. That question is taken from one of three categories that the contestant chooses before the game.
Eisenberg chose "Planet of the Apes," "Star Wars" and "I'm almost ashamed to admit it . . . but professional wrestling."
"I supplemented my teaching income writing for pro wrestling magazines for five years," he explains.
The question: "What was Charlton Heston's nickname in `Planet of the Apes?"' Eisenberg didn't hesitate: "Bright Eyes."
So in just about a half-hour, Eisenberg earned $6,900, a rather large dent in a debt he accrued over three years.
"This is great," he says.
There is a limit, though. Contestants can't win more than $20,000. The show is owned by The Walt Disney Co. through its subsidiary, Buena Vista Television.