Believe it or not, NBC has come up with a game-show host even less likely than Howie Mandel.

Penn Jillette — the talking half of the magic team of Penn and Teller — will headline "Identity," a new series that will run for five consecutive nights beginning Dec. 18.

It is, of course, no coincidence that NBC also got a jump-start for "Deal or No Deal" with a similar scheduling gambit last December.

According to NBC, "Identity" will call on contestants to "size up a group of strangers. ... The game unfolds as the contestant picks an identity — ranging anywhere from a profession to a shoe size — and tries to match it with one of the 12 strangers. The amount of money the contestant accumulates increases with each correctly identified stranger. If all 12 are matched up correctly, the player is rewarded with the top prize of $500,000."

Well, sounds less convoluted than "Show Me the Money." And there aren't any dancers, thank goodness.

And maybe Jillette will be as big a surprise as "Deal or No Deal" host Mandel has turned out to be. Maybe he can tone down that aggressively obnoxious persona he has crafted that has served him well in his Penn and Teller act.

Still, if I were making a list of People Least Likely to Host Game Shows, Jillette's name would be on it.

"GAY, STRAIGHT OR TAKEN?" is the title of a new series that premieres on the Lifetime network — and it's pretty much exactly what the title suggests.

A woman goes on dates with three different guys: one gay, one straight, one involved in a relationship. She'll try to figure out which is the straight, available one.

If she guesses right, she goes on a fabulous, all-expenses-paid trip with the guy. If she guesses wrong, the guy she picks gets to go on the trip with his significant other.

But does she still win if the straight, available guy is a total jerk?

PROVING ONCE AGAIN that shows don't have to be good to be (at least sort of) successful, The CW has ordered eight more episodes of the mind-numbing "One Tree Hill."

That brings the total episodes to the somewhat odd number of 21 this season, one short of a full-season order.

Since moving from The WB to The CW and getting "America's Next Top Model" as a lead-in, the ratings are up slightly. Not that the show has gotten any less stupid.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com