ambush television

noun

Definitions

  1. A television format in which guests are deliberately tricked into embarrassing or…

    A television format in which guests are deliberately tricked into embarrassing or upsetting confrontations.

    • The reasoning usually goes along the lines: ' Talk shows, which started out innocently, have degenerated into ambush television'.
    • The case had focused attention on “ambush” television and titillating daytime TV tactics, with Schmitz's lawyers arguing that the show misled him into believing he was going to meet the woman of his dreams.
    • Having been a former high school cheerleader and beauty queen, Birdee is remembered by everyone and pitied for her embarrassment on "ambush" television.
  2. A television format in which a hidden camera captures a public prank played on…

    A television format in which a hidden camera captures a public prank played on unsuspecting people.

    • An "ambush" television interview conducted on a public street does not violate the federal wiretap statute.
    • An increasingly controversial incarnation of reality television is the hidden camera show, or “ambush television,” in which a prank is played at the expense of an unsuspecting victim.
    • Politicians have learned to apply a fixed smile to disguise the blind panic as Chaser representative goes about his line in ambush television.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for ambush television. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA