Cheaters (2000– )

People who think their significant other is cheating on them hire a hidden camera crew to investigate their suspicions.

Creator:

Bobby Goldstein

Stars:

Joel S. Greco, Robert Magruder, Clark Gable III

Cast

Series cast summary:
Joel S. Greco	...	Himself - Host (446 episodes, 2002-2012)
Robert Magruder	...	Himself - Announcer (195 episodes, 2000-2012)

Storyline

People who think their significant other is cheating on them hire a hidden camera crew to investigate their suspicions.

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Plot Keywords:

cheating | independent television | confrontation

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Genres:

Reality-TV

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

G4 Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 October 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rysän päällä

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bobby Goldstein Productions, Cheaters II, Mediacast

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite the show's modest success in the United States, major advertisers have been reluctant to sponsor the show because of its premise and content.

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Connections

Referenced in Natural Born Komics (2007)

User Reviews

Vigorously depressing and sleazy

When I say that "Cheaters" is "Reality TV" at its absolute worst, I'm not even considering that that much of the content is probably faked, or that much of the content that is not faked is probably manipulated by the show's writers and producers to have the worst possible outcomes. I'm not even counting the fact that anyone who would come to a show like "Cheaters" and ask to have their dirty laundry aired in public is the most obvious kind of attention whore. (Anyone who really wants their relationship to survive an affair needs to go to counseling with their significant other, not pull an ambush with a TV crew.)

To me, "Cheaters" is the worst kind of TV trash because the show pretends to condemn the behavior that it exposes, but yet by covering and airing instances of that behavior in dozens of episodes,(and always with the same format), it tacitly condones that behavior and trivializes it (After all, "everybody's doing it"). Only the names and faces change; the roles and the emotions never do. And it's obvious that the presence of the cameras makes people act in ways that they would not in "real life"; at least half of everything said and done in the confrontations is obviously for the benefit of the cameras. How often can the audience watch the same infidelities and the same trailer-trash drama until it decides that such behavior is the "norm" and if they don't get some of it, then they are missing out?

The narrator is an obvious sleaze ball. He lacks even Jerry Springer's sparkle and bemused air, treating each case as though it were the second coming of "Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf?" rather than just another entry in the divorce court record. He pretends to be on the victim's side, and to be an agent of justice, but what he really is just a poor man's Barbara Walters, mercilessly trying to get the victim to cry for the cameras. Now, I don't blame the guy for wanting to make a living. I don't even blame him for the show. But his unctuous smarm is the final ingredient in making this a sleaze cocktail.

I'm not condemning anyone for watching "Cheaters"; it has the "train wreck" quality that makes it impossible to look away. But 3 episodes were all I could take. (I gave it that long to see if my first impressions were valid, or if the first episode I saw was unusually awful). But I'd caution anyone that ongoing exposure to this kind of hypocritical sleaze might do some unnoticed damage to your ability to live like a mature human being.