ABC News' Primetime is one of those newsmagazine shows that tells hard-hitting stories—about people who disappear on cruise ships, spouses who kill, hikers who go out on a hike and never come back, etc—using time-tested investigative techniques like zooming in on the same three pictures of the victim over and over, showing stock footage of cruise ships and suburban streets, and flashing a picture of the suspect, then flashing that same picture as a negative. It's all very serious and important. It's news.
Their latest hard-hitting investigative series, Primetime's What Would You Do?, uses hidden cameras and staged scenarios Tyra Banks rejected for her show because they were too implausible, to answer some tough questions like: "Who thinks this is real?" "Are we always being filmed?" And, last night's question, an interrogative that has haunted all of us at some point in our lives, "If you saw a bunch of people at a restaurant acting out some community theater version of the Juniper Creek scenes from Big Love, would you intervene? Would you?"
"Would you stop a child bride?" Hmm. That's a tough one, Primetime. I just don't know. But it's definitely worth thinking about because this is something that happens out in the open in family-style restaurants all the time, and not behind closed doors in insulated communities after years of indoctrination. Last night's show really inspired me to act the next time I see a young girl in prairie garb being forced into marriage at Applebee's, as well as to always eavesdrop on all conversations going on all around me all the time—if only to avoid essentially being labeled a terrible person on national television.
ABC News should consider selling WWPWWYDD? (What would Primetime's What Would You Do? Do?) bracelets, maybe with a little TV logo with a giant unblinking eye in the center, to remind the wearer that he/she is being judged at all times. Where would you be on John Quinones made-up, totally relative Good Samaritan scale? That's definitely something worth thinking about.