# You get caught by the show "Cheaters". How do you ensure that segment will never air? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442 "2004-06-21T14:30:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/1 "2004-06-21T14:30:27Z")
Re the TV show [“Cheaters”.](http://www.cheaters.com/) You get caught stepping out on your SO by the “Cheaters” TV crew who ambushes you, cameras at the ready, in a parking lot lip locked with someone who is not your professed true love. What do you do? I’m thinking feigned heart attack or start saying saying really bad stuff non-stop , about the network executives who produce the show, or… what? What would keep that embarassing segment off the air for good? ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/2 "2004-06-21T14:34:49Z")
My question is this… Don’t you have to sign a release so they can show your face? I work in post production for commercials & you can’t show someone with out their permission. I would think it would be the same for television. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/3 "2004-06-21T14:37:43Z")
Anyone else thinking of Monty Python’s “Blackmail”? Just one little step further… ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/4 "2004-06-21T14:49:05Z")
Act calm and rational. The only segments that are shown are the ones of people going crazy. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/5 "2004-06-21T14:58:32Z")
Gotta know – you’re asking for a “friend,” right, **astro** , honey? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/6 "2004-06-21T15:05:59Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Gotta know – you’re asking for a “friend,” right, **astro** , honey? :dubious: Yeah… that’s right, that’s the ticket… “a friend”. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/7 "2004-06-21T15:22:30Z")
I think your _friend_’s best bet would be to borrow Chico Marx’s line: “I wasn’t kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/8 "2004-06-21T15:54:02Z")
Yell out: “Surprise honey! You’re on Candid Camera!” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/9 "2004-06-21T16:01:27Z")
I’m pretty sure that refusing the sign the release will do the trick very nicely. I can’t imagine the TV company’s lawyers would let them air it without one. So why do people sign the release, anyway? Probably, they figure that the relationship is over (maybe both of them), so they might as well get a few bucks out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/10 "2004-06-21T19:31:45Z")
Insert the tape so far up the cameraman’s ass that by the time he craps it out, the footage has degraded too badly it won’t be worth it. Thats just one way… ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/11 "2004-06-21T19:47:50Z")
I’ve never seen the show, but even if you refused to sign the waiver, wouldn’t they just fuzz out your face like they do on “Cops”? Presumably, the no-longer-significant other would allow his/her face to be seen. That pretty much let’s anyone who knows you ascertain who you are anyway. So you might as well just sign the release and get whatever benefit they offer and some air time. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/12 "2004-06-21T21:06:53Z")
> [@Jackknifed Juggernaut](#): > > I’ve never seen the show, but even if you refused to sign the waiver, wouldn’t they just fuzz out your face like they do on “Cops”? Presumably, the no-longer-significant other would allow his/her face to be seen. That pretty much let’s anyone who knows you ascertain who you are anyway. So you might as well just sign the release and get whatever benefit they offer and some air time. I’d really like to clarify this “release” issue, because given some of the amazingly grotesque scenes in “Cheaters” that make it on air, I’d find it hard to believe that _anyone_ in their right mind would be signing a release for this nonsense. In thinking about it though, I have to admit that in the handful of times I’ve watched the show, that they have _never_ shown anyone (that I’ve seen) that I would consider upper middle class. It’s almost always blue collar dramas, maybe they’re doing this so people are “payoffable” re re the release. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/13 "2004-06-22T11:12:26Z")
Personally, I mean not that I’m stepping out or anything, but that’d be about the time the Berettas come out, and I confiscate the tapes, hogtie the camera man and host guy, lock 'em in whatever vehicle they came in, and poke my SO in the eye, just for spite. That’s just me though. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-caught-by-the-show-cheaters-how-do-you-ensure-that-segment-will-never-air/251442/14 "2004-06-22T11:49:48Z")
If this is the show I think it is in the only episode I’ve seen the cheating SO attacked the host with a knife and left him dramatically playing up his injuries for the rest of the segment. I can’t remember for sure if they blanked out the SO’s face – I think they did. I guess if that got to air anything will.