Mystery Diners

I have to admit I am NOT a reality TV fan. I've never watched ANY of it, from Big Brother to Dancing with the Stars. Not. Even. One.

OTOH, it's no secret that I watch House Hunters and rehab type shows. I'll also watch true crime re-enactment like "Cold Case Files" when I'm bored. But I know that those are re-enactments, I know to take it with a grain of salt. I expect the bad acting.

Why on earth do they call this "reality"? These are actors, and not even good actors. Unless "hamming it up" is what they were shooting for.

I won't be making that mistake again.

When this show came out, I used to watch it with my young daughter, and she thought it was real, so we had some laughs and discussions together about food hygiene. The episodes I recall included a lady who rubbed the hamburger buns under her armpits because she did not like the mystery shopper.

Unfortunately, after a few episodes the show turned more towards harassment of employees, and theft. I did not like the fake creepy stories, so it was back to SpongeBob for us.

The fact that Cooking Channel has the audacity to pass this off as "reality" is an insult to their viewers' intelligence. Everyone on the show is an actor (most are laughably bad) and the entire show is nothing but a poorly-staged ruse passed off as reality for the enjoyment of only the most tragically gullible of TV viewers.

Why on earth would anyone ever want to watch such a blatantly scripted fraud of a show? Bad form, Cooking Channel. There's no place for this kind of trashiness on your otherwise decent network. All it does is undermine the credibility of the rest of your programming.

P.T. Barnum once said that there's a sucker born every minute, and judging by the fact that this show is somehow still on the air, his estimate seems far too conservative.

I've been watching this show for a while. I've always been skeptical of the show being real, but I simply contributed that to it being a reenactment of the events.

Last night I watched an episode that confirmed it was fake. This episode one of their new tools called a "Stingray". This device is real, but it is available to law enforcement only and only under strict non-disclosure from the FBI. In addition, it is likely illegal to intercept the communications without permission from one of the two parties. I also suspect it would be illegal to transmit on the frequencies used for cell phones without an FCC license.

This is the worst staged show I have ever seen..! Charles Stiles needs to go to acting school along with his so called aids...! It's just unbelievable in so many ways... The shamed employees just take it & then are apparently re-employed not long after.... Don't think so... & that the disgraced & dishonest employees would let themselves be named & shamed on TV.... Come on ..?! Do you really think the public is this stupid?? They would never get another job after this was aired if it was actually real..! Absolutely rubbish Charles is ridiculously unbelievable Could be a good show if it was real, who would seriously put themselves out there like that