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I have never watched this show and have no intention to, but I am interested in checking out media hoaxes, so I clicked through your link. That link took me to a one paragraph MSNBC media gossip column that simply raised the question of whether the show was rigged with actresses.

It provided no evidence, except two links, one to John Dvorak at PC Magazine on-line. He mentions that about 3-4 (not quite 3/4's as you posted) of the girls might be rigged phonies, if one was a cynic and started with the assumption that they all were and did enough internet searches. He provided some anecdotal evidence he gathered from the web. Somehow he missed Debka.

I really would not care except that while reading the article I noticed Mr. Dvorak made the following assertions:

"Worse, there is a public trust issue here that is seriously in need of Congressional attention.

"Before I delve more deeply into the public policy issues..."

And then:

"Two years ago, one of the contestants, Stacey Stillman, in the TV show Survivor sued CBS for fraud, saying the show was rigged. The case is still pending, and the poor woman got sued in return. You can read an eye-opening deposition online. I had a long chat with Donald Yates, one of the attorneys for Stillman, and he said that the worst part about all this was that neither the FCC nor any government bodies showed any interest. It was depressing, he said. 'It's not the nineteen fifties anymore, nobody gives a sh-- about any of this.'"

Not exactly objective reporting, going to one source's lawyer claiming the same point in order to once more call for more government intervention. (Just figuring -- there have probably been about 70 "Survivor" contestants, and only one has sued, I guess the rest just must have been sleeping through all the 'rigging')

He concludes with this little diatribe:

"Maybe nobody does care. But the fact that the news organizations have become nothing more than lapdogs for the entertainment industry is beyond pathetic. In fact, if 'Joe Millionaire' is scripted in any way, this is a breach of the public trust that should be investigated by Congress the same way the fake games shows were investigated. This is television, not movies. The media companies and the news organizations should be brought up to testify. The public is already too cynical and doesn't know what to believe. We're becoming Sovietized. We have to read gossip on the Net to have a hint at what might be going on. This is not right. Send this column around, and let's see if we can shake up our drowsy Congress—see if they do 'give a sh--' or not."

I don't give a crap about the show, and maybe it's the cynic in me, but I think Dvorak's main motivation is in finding an issue to get the government involved with regulating the media.

He says: "This is television, not movies. The media companies and the news organizations should be brought up to testify."

He misses the point -- most of TV is entertainment, just like the movies. But, he then blurs the line and calls for Congress to include the "news organizations" to testify. With a tinfoil body suit fully latched on, I will cynically ask whther it might be a coincidence he picked a FOX TV show by 'accident'?