And That’s a Wrap on the Pilot of OTN’s New Game Show, ‘Two Truths and a Lie’

Game shows have entertained audiences for decades, with programs like“Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” being two of the most watched shows on television, as reported by The New York Times. Yet despite their popularity in American culture, the primary viewer demographic for game shows falls far beyond most college students, at age 60 or older.

But this summer, students in the Newhouse LA program got an up-close look into what it’s like to put a TV game show on the air when they created and filmed “Two Truths and a Lie” for Orange Television Network (OTN), and a new game show was born, targeting the Syracuse University student audience. 

The journey towards making “Two Truths and a Lie” began on the first day of the Newhouse LA summer 2024 program in May. Robin Howard, director of the Newhouse LA program, pitched the show with Bob Boden, an executive vice president at Entertainment Studios who teaches television, radio and film (TRF) classes at Newhouse LA, and Meg Craig, general manager of OTN.The show was a completely new concept for the program and built from the ground up, from hiring talent to choosing a structure for the show, to finding filming locations and managing crew. 

The show’s basic premise: Contestants, who are Syracuse University students or alumni, are asked to run through a series of questions with three answers and asked to figure out which two answers are true, and which one is the lie.  

Within a few weeks, TRF students Kayla Black and Jackie Arbogast were hired as co-executive producers, working alongside Howard and Boden to bring the show to life. 

Black said she enjoyed the challenge of juggling the accelerated pre-production process with the other tasks needed to get ready to film. 

“It was a lot of things I wasn’t expecting … but also then having to keep in mind what our network execs want, what our head of production was looking for, and what my co-producer Jackie needs for cam set up and staging. There were a lot of things in the back of my mind.” 

Once they established the show’s structure, Black and Arbogast had to prepare for two days of shooting: one on location where current students and alumni were asked questions about a particular Los Angeles location, and the other in the Syracuse University Dick Clark Los Angeles Program’s new studio. There, the studio host would lead two contestants in battling it out for the grand prize, which consisted of an engraved trophy and a stuffed Otto the Orange doll.

Students Sofia Dixon and Isabella Austin were brought on as writers, with Sophia Moore coming on as assistant director. TRF juniors Erin Flack and Laura Jacobson were brought on as the studio and field hosts, with Elizabeth Gelber and Jack Goodman, both senior TRF majors, as the inaugural in-studio contestants.  

After a month of hiring and logistics, shooting began on location in early July, starting at the Television Academy in North Hollywood. The home of the Emmy Awards, the academy is right next door to the Newhouse LA’s home at the Dick Clark Los Angeles Program campus.

Working with students and alumni as on-location contestants, they ended the day filming at Television City, home of the iconic Stage 33, where programs including “The Carol Burnett Show” and “The Price is Right” were filmed.

A week later, the crew entered the Dick Clark Los Angeles center’s sound stage to film the in-studio portion, with edited location footage, new contestants and a new host. Gelber and Goodman were asked by Flack to answer the same questions as the on-location players, in addition to guessing if the field contestant got the answer correct.  

“I’ve never been on a set before, so it’s been really cool to experience it in real time with all the lighting and the cameras and different set-ups,” Flack said.

The executive producers had to maneuver filming around phones ringing, microphone issues and loud planes flying overhead—just like what happens on shoots on the TV networks. 

Arbogast loved diving head-first into the world of managing crew and dealing with logistics.  

“That’s the stuff I enjoy,” she said. “I think that I would be an executive producer again. I love how we persisted in such a quick turnaround… It was a learning experience for me to take someone else’s idea and try to curate it in the way they want it to be.” 

On the last day of the summer ‘24 Newhouse LA program, students finally got to view the episode. Rowdy cheers and waves of claps filled the halls of the Dick Clark Center as students laughed watching their friends and peers on screen, as “Two Truths and a Lie” came to life. 

The final product—the 30 minute-long pilot episode— aired Aug. 7 on OTN and is available on YouTube. It’s the result of the work and dedication students put in while still juggling classes and internships through their Newhouse LA summer semester.  

The Newhouse LA program and OTN plan to shoot the next episode during the Spring 2025 semester.