A recent job interview. Shhhh ... don't tell my boss ...

"So, Mr. Wastler, you'd like to join our network ..."

"Yes," I say in my most eager, but confident enough not to be over-eager, voice. "I have some TV experience and I heard that you have an opening in your ..."

"What's your fetish?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your fetish. You know, a twist. A personal titillation. Leather? Women's clothes? Kitchen utensils?"

"Uh, I don't have one, I don't think. I ..."

"Mr. Wastler, c'mon, that's the latest thing in TV. Don't you watch Joe Millionaire? A regular old reality show contest, just tooling down wannabe brides to the final, dramatic I'm-not-really-a-rich-guy end. Then, what d'ya know. Turns out that one of the final contestants is a bondage model. Talk about giving the mid-run ratings a little goose. Everybody tuned into the next installment to see if 'bondage girl' was going to make it."

"But that was serendipity, right? Surely the network couldn't have known ..."

"Ha! Talk about fantasy. It was perfect. Bondage, but with her clothes on. Keeps it racy, but not pornographic. Just like Survivor Thailand, where one of the guys turns out to be in some skin flicks. Porn, yes, but soft porn -- not the offensive hard stuff. But it gets people watching. And if it works for prime time, it'll work everywhere else. So ... what's your fetish? Or were you in skin flicks?"

"Now wait a minute ... that type of thing won't work anywhere. My employer, CNN, had one instance ..."

"Yeah, yeah. The anchor-actress who posed nude once. Big deal. There was no follow-through on the actual program. Turns out she really did just want to be a journalist. Then got bored with it. But on Survivor, viewers actually did get to see the ex-porn star half-undressed. And in Joe Millionaire, there is some hoochy-coochy going on. Jeez, 'Bondage girl' took him out into the woods for some frolicking that couldn't be shown on TV. They subtitled it though. All those 'mmm's, 'slurp's and 'gulp's. Brilliant way to get porn into people's heads without showing it."

Empty? Click the crust

"Some people would find it offensive, I'm sure. Anyway, that's more the fare for midday Jerry Springer type stuff, don't you think? Not serious television."

"Are you kidding? You see the economy? Advertising? Sex sells. And these little 'unforeseen' tidbits help sell it. So we're going to introduce in all our program segments. We're looking at a home repair show hosted by a dominatrix. A news magazine exposing sexual habits of newsmakers -- '60 Sexy Minutes' or something like that. 'Culinary Cuties' on the Food Network. You know, all sorts of permutations. And we'll keep doing it until America finds it boring. So, if you want to be part of this new era in TV, I'll ask one last time ....

"What's your fetish?"  

Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNN/Money and a commentator on CNNfn. He can be e-mailed here.