ambush television

ambush television (uncountable)

1. A television format in which guests are deliberately tricked into embarrassing or upsetting confrontations.
   • 2002, Toni Johnson-Woods, Big Bother, page 210:

     The reasoning usually goes along the lines: ' Talk shows, which started out innocently, have degenerated into ambush television'.

   • 2005, Sherry Diestler, Becoming a Critical Thinker: A User Friendly Manual, page 132:

     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.

   • 2010, Melvin Donalson, Black Directors in Hollywood, page 311:

     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 unsuspecting people.
   • 1989, LDRC 50-state Survey - Volume 7; Volumes 9-11, page 593:

     An "ambush" television interview conducted on a public street does not violate the federal wiretap statute.

   • 2004, Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal - Volume 4, page 82:

     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.

   • 2006, The Bulletin - Issues 6527-6535, page 22:

     Politicians have learned to apply a fixed smile to disguise the blind panic as Chaser representative goes about his line in ambush television.

• ambush journalism