Dan Cortese Hosts The New Show "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad"

Dan Cortese, who grew up in Sewickley, referees the reality competition "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" (9 p.m. Monday, WPXI) and Dennis Miller, who grew up in Castle Shannon, guides contestants through the game show "AMNE$IA" (9 p.m. Friday, WPXI). Both programs are executive produced by reality-show mastermind Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?").Miller's show is sort of a modern "This Is Your Life," while Cortese's taunt-titled show sounds more like the old Nickelodeon series "Double Dare."

In "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad," teams of fathers and their 8-to-12-year-old sons or daughters compete for a chance to win up to $50,000 and the ability to boast the show's title.In one competition, the fathers have to climb in a vat of green goo to retrieve letters and hand them to their children who must use the letters to spell a word. In the Human Dart Board, fathers launch their harnessed children across a soundstage onto a Velcro wall. In a round that is meant to determine bravery, fathers must enter a snake pit and retrieve tomatoes using only their mouths.

"I have a son who is 7. My daughter is getting ready to turn 4. And unless you have children, it's hard to describe the feeling and the sensation that you have as a father when you do things with them," said Cortese, who hosted MTV Sports shows and starred in the sitcom "Veronica's Closet.""My son has been playing Little League baseball the past two years and even if it's as simple as going outside and pitching him a ball or playing catch with him -- it's one of those things that you realize that, truthfully, a father will do anything for their kids."The last competition in each episode is a question-and-answer round. Cortese said the questions may seem simple, until you stop to think if you know the answers to the same question when applied to your own family.