Jerry Seinfeld is creating and executive producing a reality show tentatively titled ‘The Marriage Ref‘ in which comedians, celebrities, and sports figures will provide commentary on marital disputes of real-life couples.  It is slated to have 6 episode run on NBC possibly starting in the fall.

He has several people as celebrity guests in mind including Stephen Colbert, Ashton Kutcher, Jon Stewart, Oprah, Ellen, and Denis Leary to name a few.

Many say he got the idea from this site (from this article – he is a New Yorker, afterall).

Will it be a hit?  Who knows.  I do know this.  Jerry, if you feel like using SideTaker.com as an online component (since it pretty much does the same thing) to your show, I would be more than happy to work with you.  Don’t give me the ‘no soup’ answer.

Just a note…SideTaker.com was mentioned in the Telegraph.co.uk.  Thanks!

SideTaker.com is what you make of it.  If your argument has some crazy issues you have to add to make your sides complete, then by all means do it!  If it’s simply a small lovers’ spat that doesn’t require many facts then keep it simple.  You’ll get better advice based on how you write your story.

If you really want help, I’d say go with only the facts and try to word your side so you are looking for actual help and not to get a rise out of people.  If you want a rise or have some audacious attribute, add it only for fodder, but not to sway the vote.

Some may say voting only increases the tension in an argument and doesn’t serve to mediate.  Really, it’s not supposed to find common ground.  People voting do not and will never know you so just be honest.  Let them decide and use their decision any way you wish, but don’t solely base your own decisions on it.  If the vote is close, then chances are you you both need to work on things.  If it’s swayed completely to one side, then it may be OK to put stock in one side being wrong.

The reason there is not a “you’re both wrong” option to vote is because though both sides may be wrong, you still have to choose from only 2 sides.  If you feel strong enough that both are wrong, don’t vote and just comment on why each is wrong.

Cheers!

This weekend, TechCrunch.com gave SideTaker a nice little writeup.  If you’d like to read the article, you can do so by clicking here.

These stories are real.  Never Flushes The Toilet is a real story.  This is partly the reason SideTaker works well in its format of anonymity. Would you really want to tell this type of dirty laundry to friends?  Would they be biased in their advice?  You can actually tell it all, big or small, and not have the worry of people looking at you directly when you do.

Arguments don’t have to be outrageous.  They can be about anything.  SideTaker is not meant for a quick fix to a fight.  It’s more of a way to show an ‘i told you so’ answer since both people fighting obviously think they’re right and will continue until a bunch of people tell them otherwise.

Some people would like to see video disputes added, but it’s felt they would turn into too much of a staged event and there would be less participation.