During the television writers' summer tour, NBC Universal Television Group president Jeff Zucker disclosed the names and concepts behind two heretofore-unidentified Fox shows that are scheduled to air during the 2004-05 television season.

ADVERTISEMENT
According to the Washington Post, the two Fox shows identified by Zucker are tentatively entitled Big Shot and Who's My Daddy?.

Big Shot, being filmed in Los Angeles, appears to be a cross between Spike TV's The Joe Schmo Show and NBC's The Apprentice. On the show, several contestants try to win a high-paying job with a corporate tycoon, as in The Apprentice ... only to learn at the end that the tycoon and the job are both fake, as in Joe Schmo.

The Boston Herald named one of the contestants on Big Shot: Mike Gregorio, whom the Herald described as the "sales sultan" of United Liquors in Boston. We hope his sultanate isn't affected by the fact that Fox is apparently trying to make him and the other contestants on Big Shot into nationwide buffoons.

Meanwhile, Who's My Daddy? appears to be a cross between The Jerry Springer Show and poor taste. In it, a young woman who doesn't know her biological father attempts to identify him from a group of 16 men.

We like the idea that, instead of merely copying The Apprentice, Fox is twisting it ... oh wait, we forgot, Fox is ALSO copying it, with Branson's Big Adventure. Nothing like hedging your bets with two copycat shows instead of merely one.

We also find ourselves cringing at the very thought of Who's My Daddy? We suspect that cringing isn't exactly the reaction that Fox wanted from its potential audience for this show....