Am I the only one left who gets embarrassed watching other people stand up and make fools of themselves?

I cringe when anyone is caught on camera and on-mike saying and doing stupid things. I close my eyes when someone on television gets tongue-tied, looks ridiculous, or just generally exposes their humanity. I even get squeamish and decide it's time to pour another cup of coffee when Al Roker starts chatting up the crowd lined outside "The Today Show" broadcast window.

But the rash of "reality TV" suggests that this kind of unrehearsed, unscripted, ripe-for-ridicule behavior is exactly what postmodern viewers tune in for. At the beginning of the summer the most touted new entry into this embarrass-TV was another game-show import from Britain's BBC entitled "The Weakest Link." A group of…