Substitute for MTV

There may be no substitute for MTV with today's addlepated and over-hormoned teen critters. Oh, there I go old-fogeying again. In fact, I'm so fogeyed-out that I can remember when MTV played music videos. This occurred in the late Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas blogged about it.

The game show Substitute is MTV's upcoming Cash Cab knockoff. The premise is that a phony substitute teacher surprises a high school class of non-honor students with: "You're on Substitute! It's a TV game show played right here in my taxi, er, classroom!" (Okay, he doesn't really say that. At least, I don't think he does.) The fake subber then quizzes the kids. No word if errant answers bring detention.

As derivative and vapid as the format sounds, this might be a semi-reasonable quizzer by MTV's loose (in every way) standards. The linked story wonders how the schoolkids wouldn't suspect anything "despite the presence of cameras and a production crew." But MTV has never had problems locating sub-genius-level folks - see Shore, Jersey - so fooling the teens probably won't be a daunting task.

No word yet on exactly when the show might turn up. Maybe when Skins gets old and wrinkled. Comic Jon Gabrus will play the faux teacher. Somewhat surprisingly, Michael Davies is the exec producer.