SICK!! Absolutely SICK!! In times like these where people find themselves struggling to keep a job or find another one, there is NO "FREAKING" EXCUSE for exploiting these tragedies. But that doesn't stop Fox Television from adding their company to this misery. The name of the new upcoming series is called "Someone's Gotta Go" and the point of this reality show is to select which employee gets laid off!! What the HELL! It's like "The Apprentice" in reverse where instead of vying for a prized position, you instead have to scramble to maintain your own before the cut is made.
I'm too angry writing this piece. Let me cool down a little bit. When I've collected myself, the rest of this evil story will follow next...
OK. This story needs to be heard so I'll do my best to continue. *deep breath*
The show is set up where the selected small businesses let their employees (not the boss) make the call of who gets let go. These episodes will feature a company in need of cutting costs due to economy with a staff of about 15 to 20 employees so this shows a close knit working group. And of course that makes the decision extra painful for the one to be chosen for laying off (and perhaps for the people making that choice). All employees' salaries will be open for all to see as these companies open their files. Maybe this is some warped idea of making the choice fairer? *breathe*
For the one chosen to be booted from their job, Fox says that this employee will get a small severance package. However, they didn't make word about the network itself or the show's producers paying the ones participating any money...only a clichéd 15 minutes of fame on prime-time TV. *seethe*
By the way, the yet unrevealed host of the show will be a business consultant who will offer advice to participating companies. Also, while the series is in production, Fox hasn't set a schedule for the program to air at this time.
Listen to this studio exec talk about this "show". His name is Mike Darnell, the infamous President of Alternative Entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company:
I feel that it's part of the times that we are living in. It's certainly no worse than watching the news every night and hearing all the statistics and watching what is happening. To be frank, like all these shows, if you don't want to watch, don't watch it.
He goes on to say that Fox and Endemol USA, the company that brought you "Big Brother", "Fear Factor", and "Deal or No Deal", had, and I quote, "absolutely no trouble" finding companies willing to participate. Darnell, who is a fan NBC's "The Office", mentioned that he had been working with Endemol USA about producing a show based around the workplace. At first he thought about having an expert come in and reform a workplace in dysfunction, but then he had a epiphany after watching a certain news report. This news report featured a company with a boss who couldn't decide who to layoff instead leaving it up to his employees. With that report, "Someone's Gotta Go" was born.
Tory Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Women For Hire (an employment agency for women) and regular contributor to ABC's Good Morning America, wonders whether the show is such a good idea in a time when so many find themselves unemployed. Her comments:
"For most people who are concerned about job security or are desperate to get hired, I don't think there's much to laugh at in terms of watching someone else's pain and misery."
Darnell doesn't see it that way instead envisioning the show as a story about employee empowerment. He said that many people in the workplace can relate to seeing a colleague laid off and wondered why someone else they perceived as less valuable kept their job. But Darnell has no concerns about the emotional aftermath left in the wake of a program where employees may have to work aside other employees who voted in favor of having them or one they liked...fired. All this on national TV no less.
Darnell seemed intrigued by this notion. Listen:
Sounds like good reality television. You just described a good concept for a reality TV show.
*breathe* OK. I'm going to come out and say it. Mike Darnell is one sick "mother". It's one thing to have a show like "Big Brother" where "The Truman Show" effect is cast over a selected group of housemates. It's annoying but it's purely the choice of the voyeur-seeking participants to embarrass themselves or not. It's one thing to have a show like "Fear Factor" where "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase proclamation of "Everybody's got a price" comes true as contestants do the grossest for the gross. Stomach turning but simple entertainment where the only thing hurt is your pride...and maybe your intestines. It's one thing to have a show like "Deal or No Deal" with the drama of making the crucial selections that can bring the contestants riches or ridicule. It's fun to watch the shadowy man give "The Call" and fun to wonder what happened to Howie Mandel's hair.
But this is Evil. This is real life not "reality TV". People's livelihoods are on the line and you're making a game out of it. What will the employees think about a boss and a company that would select to participate in such a program? Will they think he or she takes their livelihoods as a trivial toy? Will they see their employer as weak because he or she couldn't be an adult and make these tough decisions face to face for themselves? Will they resent their fellow employees where once there was a closer cooperation? What will that do to the health of the company? New kinds of workplace politics in a close-knit workplace decreasing quality of work and productiveness? What will happen to the person and/or the family of the person who was the victim of the vote? What if the laid off person fails to find another job in time? How will this affect the person's household? Will the lack of suitable income end up in the person losing their residence? Will they succumb to drug abuse to medicate the pain? What if the fired person turns to a life of crime? What if the person becomes warped and lashes out at the workplace he/she once worked in violent revenge? What do the people who make that decision tell their children if they have any? How will those children view them after this? Will that view affect the decider's household in negative ways?
So this why I don't watch TV as much anymore. This is simply my opinion and maybe it's yours too but if ANYBODY needs to lose their job, it's Mike Darnell. I mean it.
This story sadly brought to you by the Associated Press.
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