Line #4 Trivia/TheJoeSchmoShow


1	* AdoredByTheNetwork: When the show was first launched, it was used a flagship to promote the network changing over from being country-fried [=TNN=] (or more specifically, their brief phase as "The National Network", in an attempt to compete with the Creator/USANetwork) to Creator/SpikeTV, the "First Network for Men." Repeats were aired regularly, promos were frequent and a marathon was aired leading up to the finale of the first season.
2	* {{Corpsing}}: As the actors had to almost constantly in character, sometimes they couldn't help but end up corpsing in response to the pure craziness going on around them. At this point, they would have to turn around and otherwise do anything they could to hide their reactions from the schmoes.
3	* CreatorBacklash: Matt Gould, the Season 1 contestant, expressed some bitterness about the deception in the immediate aftermath of the show and turned to alcohol and marijuana because he thought that people looked down on him for participating in the show and being fooled. He eventually achieved sobriety and worked to move past the experience and later made peace with his experience after realizing that people had nothing but nice things to say about him and how he was portrayed by the show.
4	* InspirationForTheWork: One of the two creators (their partnership would lead to hit movies like ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'' and ''Film/{{Deadpool\|2016}}'') was a producer on ''Series/BigBrother 2'', and as both watched the show they decided to [[StartMyOwn give their own take on reality television]].
5	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: True to at least some degree of ''Joe Schmo 2''. Once Spike TV decided it wasn't getting the ratings that they wanted, they moved it to a scheduled time of 11:05 P.M., but with the caveat that it didn't air until after ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' had finished. ''Raw'' often ran late and in one instance ran so late that the original broadcast of one of the episodes of ''Joe Schmo 2'' didn't air until after midnight. Additionally, an episode that was originally scheduled to last an hour-and-a-half was edited to fit within an hour timeslot. The full length version of the episode wasn't seen until the program came out on DVD, several years later.
6	* SerendipityWritesThePlot:
7	** The first season was initially structured around putting Matt ([[TrumanShowPlot the only contestant that wasn't in on the joke of the reality show being a spoof)]] in silly and bizarre scenarios [[PointAndLaughShow to overall make him look ridiculous]], but over time, he genuinely started to form camaraderie with his fellow "contestants", to the point that they admitted feeling guilty about lying to him. When he became visibly upset seeing Earl -- his closest friend -- was voted off, the producers scrambled together a goofy sumo wrestling match rigged in his favor to cheer him up... which then accidentally resulted in "Dr. Pat" [[OnSetInjury getting injured and requiring real-life medical evacuation]], which left Matt so guilty that [[IFeelGuiltyYouTakeIt he gave the match's vacation package award to her]]. From there on out, the show ended up being further rigged in his favor and painting him in the best possible light as everyone else involved (producers, actors, and the audience at home) were too charmed by how ''likeable'' Matt was to keep up a potentially mean-spirited charade, though they still waited until the finale after he won to reveal the act (and fortunately, he ended up being a good sport about it).
8	** The second season almost went off the rails when Ingrid (one of the two "schmoes" who were meant to be in the dark) steadily realized what kind of show she was actually in, eventually coming to correctly deduce on her own that [[TrumanShowPlot everything was a hoax]]. This led to the producers eventually cutting a deal with her to keep her onboard by becoming a cast member herself, still with the chance of receiving the $100,000 prize, which she accepted, resulting in her switching sides and inviting Amanda as the new female "schmo" to take her place.
9	* WordOfGod: In 2021-2022, several members of the cast and crew were interviewed on [=YouTube=] as part of a series of interviews dubbed "The Most Shocking Interview Yet" with a number of interesting tidbits came from this:
10	** Ralph Garman revealed that the moment in which he said Cammy's name during the "Taste My Treats" game and thus made her the winner "by mistake" was not, in fact, scripted, as many thought.
11	** Ingrid revealed that she didn't figure out quite as much what viewers thought and that her biggest fear was actually that she was on something like ''Average Jane'', having heard about ''Average Joe'' before going on the show.
12	** Brian Keith Etheridge revealed that much of the presence of things like scantily-clad models on the series was the result of ExecutiveMeddling, as this was the early days of Spike TV and they wanted as much as of this as possible to appeal to the target demographic.
13	** On the flipside, J. Holland Moore revealed that the eviction ceremony pattern in the second season, i.e. "Can I give you a pearl necklace?", "Please present your wick," was exactly as he originally wrote it. He presented it to the executives thinking there was no way they would allow it, but instead they loved it, as it was exactly the sort of thing they were going for, given their desire to push Spike as "the first network for men."

Context Trivia / TheJoeSchmoShow