On Monday, December 28, U.S. TV viewers will get their first look at a new production from Robert Kiviat called "World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed." The show, which airs on the FOX network, will examine several high-profile cases that, in Kiviat's opinion, can now be definitively labeled as hoaxes. These include the famous 1968 Patterson Bigfoot film, several films of the Loch Ness Monster, the UFO films and photos of Eduard Billy Meier, and --yes --
the Alien Autopsy.

Kiviat produced "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?" for FOX in 1995. The show, which aired three times in rapid succession, raised questions about the infamous autopsy film but left the impression in many viewers' minds that the graphic footage unearthed by English producer Ray Santilli might be authentic. Now, with Kiviat's new show labeling the autopsy a definite hoax, he has been
accused by some journalists of perpetrating a hoax of his own the first time around.

"I take extreme displeasure in hearing that," Kiviat told CNI News in a recent interview. "That [autopsy] show was not a hoax. That show clearly stated, 'We don't know the answer. Until we know more, you'll have to decide.' It was a news-breaking story that we handled in the most proficient manner we could in the time we had. We were given a deadline [by Ray Santilli] to get it on the air, as a condition of airing the footage, and we did honor that."

Kiviat says he wasn't even planning to revisit the autopsy in his new show, until he uncovered some new information that helped him bring the autopsy investigation to closure. In retrospect, he says, the new revelations about the autopsy footage could have been unearthed by any major news organization, but no one else tried.

The idea for the "Greatest Hoaxes" show was hatched while Kiviat was producing last year's "UFOs: Best Evidence Caught on Tape" for FOX. Looking through piles of UFO videos, Kiviat kept asking himself, "Are these too good to be true?"

"Unfortunately, some of the 'best' cases do look too good to be true," he says. "They look fake, after careful analysis. This does not mean that UFOs might not be a true phenomenon, but I thought, and FOX agreed, that this was a good idea for a show."

So, is Bob Kiviat becoming a debunker? Not at all, he says.

"My belief that there is something to this is what drives me," he told CNI News. "The majority of what we did in 'UFOs: Best Evidence Caught on Tape' is truly anomalous. There's something there, something physical. Mexico, July 11, 1991 -- I don't think anything in the annals of Ufology can be compared to that one hour over Mexico City. There's many cases of things caught on tape
which look like there's something unknown, or unadmitted-to, in our skies.

"On the other hand, the database is probably filled, 70% or more, with bogus cases. I think 30% of the entire database of phenomena caught on tape is truly worth looking into. I think 30% of the database could drive ten seasons of television. And that's where I'm headed," Kiviat says.

He laments that so-called "paranormal television" has profiled many dubious cases without making any real attempt to investigate or come to conclusions. He distances himself from that approach -- at least from now on.

"We're not going to stand around and do what I think some others have done, saying, 'Hey, we don't want to spoil a good mystery.' Those days are over," Kiviat insists. "The reality is, the viewer deserves a lot better. It is very provocative television to try to get to the bottom of things that people don't want you to get to the bottom of."

And there's a lot to look at, he says. "My main credo is to look at bizarre things that people in the normal journalistic community tend to not have knowledge about. I look at it almost as a mission statement to look at those cases, because nobody else really does that in the 'official' news-gathering world. I have to tell you, there are some amazing cases they are letting go."

Kiviat hopes that his upcoming TV special will lead to a regular series. "Where I'm going now is, we're going to look at cases that for years and years have been touted as inexplicable. And we're going to solve those -- at least to our thinking," he says. "And then we're going to move on to other cases as they come up, before they have a chance to become stale or become mythological
on their own."

Again and again, Kiviat emphasizes that he is not a debunker. "I don't want people to think that I'm negative toward the phenomena. I'm not. The reason I'm doing this is that I'm deeply into it. Up to my eyeballs in it," he says.

"The World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed" airs on the FOX network Monday, December 28, 1998 at 8:00 pm Eastern and Pacific time.