Choose Wisely

Okay, this is taking the whole "Beauty and the Geek" thing a bit too far.

In a moment of complete serendipity, given that I had a near-identical conversation with a friend yesterday over this, I stumbled across a very interesting little bit of Fall television news.

Playboy TV (I only watch for the articles) is planning on launching a new game show, "Gadget or the Girl", where a male contestant gets to choose between a) an unknown piece of high tech gear, or a date with a playboy hottie.

Hmm.

Gidget, or gadget?
iPod or iPootang?
PS3, or Puss?
HDTV, or H.I...vicious, too vicious. Forget I just said that.

The show starts with the guy forced to choose immediately between three women, ditching one. The remaining threesome (hah! he should be so lucky) go on a date to get to know each other, and eventually he narrows his choice down to one woman. But then he has to decide between a gadget or a getaway weekend with the girl, with the possibly high-tech toys ranging from a 60" plasma TV to an arcade game machine.

In what sounds like Let's Make a Deal, though, the guy doesn't know what the gadget is until he makes his pick. And, to give the girl more incentive, if he picks her, she gets her own gadget.

So, let me get this straight.

The girl gets:
- a free three-way date, where she all but throws herself at the guy to get him to pick her;
- if chosen, a free mystery gadget (insert "batteries not included" joke here) of her own;
- if chosen, a free weekend romantic getaway with a guy she barely knows and will probably ditch as soon as she gets off the plane.

The guy gets:
- a three-way date, where two women will pretend to fight over him for the sake of television;
- a chance to choose between a gadget that may be a 60" HDTV, but will likely be an electric nose hair trimmer, or a date with a playboy hottie;
- if he chooses the hottie, he gets to spend a romantic weekend getaway alone while she makes out with the cabana boy.

Hmmm.

Not for nothing...but unless she's guaranteeing me some action (and I'd want video!), I'm going for the XBox.