Howard Schultz on the premise of the show:

"Basically, here is how the show works: The game within the show is the device to have people tell the truth about their lives and whatnot. There are six levels of questions. The first level is six questions. If they answer truthfully to all six questions, they can make $10,000. The next level is five questions. If they reach that, it’s $25,000. The next level is four questions, for $100,000; three questions for $200,000; two questions for $350,000; and one final question for $500,000. The process is done this way. We find a participant. We research their background and their past, and we talk to their friends and family and co-workers, all the people in their lives. We assemble a list of questions typically numbering between 50 and 75 questions. We give them a polygraph examination by a certified polygraph examiner. We then select 21 questions from those questions that they were asked. They do not know which 21 we will select and they do not know the results of their polygraph. Those 21 questions are then asked on the show. If you add up six, five, four, three, two, one you get to 21. That’s how it works, very simple. The participant is alone on the stage with Mark. Their friends and family are nearby on a couch, watching. And so they are answering these questions in front of their family and friends."

Schultz on the differences between the American version and the original Columbian version of The Moment of Truth:

"It’s virtually identical except there is one additional piece in the American episode. The American episodes have what we call the 'friends and family' button. There is a button sitting in front of the friends and family, and they can press it one time as a group. They can only use it one time. If that button is pressed, we will substitute a question for the question that they do not want to hear the answer to. I will tell you that with all of the tapings we have done, it has not been used very often. And typically what we’ve found is when a sensitive question is asked of a participant, and we thought that the friends and family would press the button in order to save the participant from the embarrassment of whatever the question might be. As it turns out, oftentimes the friends and family want to know the answer so badly, they won’t hit the button.

"It’s funny. Sometimes the participant will actually pause and wait and give the family space to hit the button. And they won’t hit it anyway. But that’s the only change. The only other change is the dollar values in the United States are much greater than they are in Columbia."

Mark Walberg on feeling uncomfortable along with the contestants :

"I spend most of the time on that stage a little uncomfortable. It’s just funny to me that I ended up hosting this show because I like to keep the peace. I don’t like a whole lot of confrontation and yet, I find myself in these very confrontational shows. So I guess the best way I can answer that question is, I feel like the best way to be a good host and I sure aspire to be one of those, is to be as empathetic as you can be with whoever the subject is, the participant. So really if they’re nervous, I’m nervous for them. And my whole realm of being on the set is really just trying to let them know all of their options and hope that they can get through this process with as much money as they want at a level of comfort that they are comfortable with. And so, yes, there are times when I’ve even said to them, 'You’ve got a lot of money. I really don’t want to have to ask this question. Please, don’t make me read it.' And they say, 'Bring it on.' What you don’t necessarily get in the promos, but you will see in the show, and what I love about the show is that there is so much power in the seat of the participant. They’ve heard every question already. The lie detector test happened at an earlier date. They can change their answer at any time if they feel that in the first test, they may have answered incorrectly. And they can stop at any time. So with all those mechanisms in place for their own protection, they really are driving the bus. That doesn’t stop them from driving it off a cliff sometimes."

Schultz and Walberg on the various questions :

Howard Schultz: The questions vary from participant to participant. We custom design the questions, based upon who’s sitting in the chair. We do a lot of homework. We call their families, their friends, their co-workers, their high school chemistry teachers. We reach deep into these people’s lives to create what I call a mosaic of them, if you will. We really do get a pretty complete picture of who this individual is and we use our own intuition. So sometimes we’ll create questions, there’s nothing that anyone has told us specifically, but we get a general impression of this individual. So we’ll add some questions into their polygraph exam, based upon our intuition into their life.

Mark Walberg: Can I interject a little something on that as well? One of the things, as a host you see a lot of formats over the years and you can really see which ones last and which ones don’t. And one of the things I really love about this format is that there are those questions, did you cheat on your wife, did you rob a bank that are what I would call a generic question that could apply to anybody. And they certainly are riveting to hear a few times. But where this show really lives for me is that it becomes a personal journey. Very quickly you start to learn, not just the information on the questions, but all sorts of information about this person, their family, their friends, their life. So what was really interesting to watch, and I’m going to just suggest might be the reason why the show may be sustainable, is that with every person there are personal questions that are far more riveting than just simply did you cheat on your wife or steal some money. So you find out something about this person. Then you find a specific question that only relates to them and that’s when it becomes really interesting to watch and is different with every single person that is in the chair. Every single time you tune in, that episode is entirely different in tone, in flavor, in questions than the one you saw last week.

The Moment of Truth with Mark Walberg and Howard Schultz Page 2