The Joe Schmo Show

A reality television hoax show that takes a regular reality television contestant and tricks them into thinking they are on a real reality television show; in reality, all of the other participants in the purported show – including the host – are actors, and their actions and the outcome of the purported show are all scripted in an attempt to elicit comedic reactions from the targets.

The only constant presence in all the Joe Schmo seasons has been voice actor Ralph Garman, who has served as the "emcee" for all editions (playing a smarmier caricature of himself in the first and a pompous British man in the second).

The Joe Schmo Show

The show's first season aired in 2003 and was a hoax typical reality competition show. For the hoax, the producers named the faux-reality show Lap of Luxury, with a $100,000 top prize "awarded" to the "winner." At the end of every episode an eviction ceremony was conducted where each contestant voted to evict someone, and the person with the most votes was eliminated. After the written finish was executed, the actor in question would take a plate with their face painted on it and give it to the host, who would then state a rhyming couplet that went "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, (name), you're dead to us" then throw the plate into the fireplace, breaking it. In the final episode the three remaining "players" faced a final vote from the evicted "houseguests" (similar to the final Tribal Council on Survivor) with the one getting the most votes "winning".

Joe Schmo 2

The second season aired in 2004 and was a hoax style Bachelor-like dating series. Rather than duplicate the premise of the first season, producers satirized reality dating shows such as The Bachelor and The Bachelorette with a fake show called Last Chance for Love. This time the premise was to fool two people, a man and a woman.

Ralph Garman returned to host the second season as Derek Newcastle, dying his hair blond and wearing a fake beard, glasses, blue contact lenses and false teeth plus spoke with a British accent so he would not be recognized by the new contestants.