In 1998, Nickelodeon started a game show hosted by my favorite Nick alum Phil Moore. Kids would convince people to perform silly tasks in an effort to win a Nintendo 64 or something worth a couple hundred bucks. The tasks were always pretty mundane, such as convincing an elderly lady to stick her hand in some dirt to dig out a worm. Now take that, mix in some adult themes, tough guy-wannabe Joe Rogan, bring it to a simmer, and you get CBS’s atrocious new competition program Game Show In My Head, which premiered last night.

Rogan

No, the hidden-camera-and-earpiece idea isn’t anything new by any means. It’s been used on everything from Punk’d to David Letterman. GSIMH (hell of an abbreviation, isn’t it?) tries to be different by making the tasks “hilarious and embarrassing.” As I watched last night, I saw a girl who had to make people line up for 3 minutes for no reason, and guess which of a group of people would make it across the street at an intersection the quickest.

The “bonus round,” if you can call it that, asked her to convince a man to marry her. A full wedding was set up in a park, minus a groom, and the poor girl had to find a guy willing to fill-in for the groom, including writing vows and kissing the bride. It sounds impossible, sure, but the girl managed to do it …and that’s probably the point where I began to become addicted to this awful, awful show.

I’ve never watched Fox’s awful The Moment of Truth, and I’ve even rarely watched Punk’d. Yet, there’s something about this girl humiliating herself and members of the general public that oddly enticed me. Yes, it’s a guilty pleasure to me now. Of course, since it’s on Saturdays on CBS, I’m it’s only got a few weeks before its cancelled, but until then I’ll be watching and giggling horrendously as these idiots make fools of themselves in front of people on the street, and probably a couple million viewers.

Photo: Cliff Lipson/CBS.