With so much reality show drivel out there, a new show has emerged that not only demonstrates television’s potential for good, but taps into the zeitgeist of a nation full of folks working harder than ever to hold onto their jobs in a shaky economy.
Undercover Boss debuted on CBS last night right after the Super Bowl and today the reality show is generating positive buzz for its simple yet powerful concept. As the name suggests, the program helps top executives pose as rank and file employees in their companies to get a true feeling for how hard the people on their payroll actually work.
Last night’s premiere episode featured Larry O’Donnell, president of Waste Management Inc., going undercover as “Randy” and taking on menial tasks such as cleaning out port-a-potties and picking up trash. In the process, he got to know several of his employees on a more intimate level.
Case in point? O’Donnell seemed moved by Walter, who works an exhausting job at a Florida landfill while juggling dialysis three times a week. (And amusingly fired Larry — AKA Randy — for not filling bags of trash at a landfill fast enough.) Then there was Jaclyn, a hard-working office manager in upstate New York who was in jeopardy of losing her home. And Janice, who revealed that she’s so busy picking up trash at upwards of 300 homes a day that she’s resorted to using a tin can as her toilet.
The Baltimore Sun seemingly summed up the show best in describing it this way:
“(O’Donnell’s) not truly the star of the show. The real heroes are the people he encounters – the cancer survivor who juggles six jobs at a landfill and fears home foreclosure, the woman who runs across the lunchroom to return to work so her pay won’t be docked, the guy who takes pride in clean toilets and instructs his new companion: ‘It’s not a job, it’s an adventure.’”
In typical reality show format, the show ended with O’Donnell revealing himself to the employees who mentored him along the way, and promised various positive changes to the company based on their impact — including a raise for the deserving Jaclyn!
And yes, some cynical folks question whether these changes will really make an impact, or are simply lip service that looks good on TV. But a show that shines a light on hard-working Americans and gets people to think about ways to improve their working conditions sounds pretty great to us — and sure beats a lot of the other mindless reality TV fare out there.
Photo courtesy of greensudbury via Flickr
