Someone’s Gotta Go and Be Indifferent
And I thought recession advertising was bad; proof that everything can be cashed in on – even the collapse of an economy.
But no. We want more. Something even more sinister. Something that will turn the destruction of livelihoods into lighthearted, prime-time entertainment. Enter Someone’s Gotta Go.
The new Fox reality show will feature a handful of small companies, allegedly forced to downsize. Employees will battle it out to avoid being laid off. They’ll compare pay scales and performance reviews. They’ll tell one another how they really feel. They’ll fight to hold onto the job they probably hate anyway. Ultimately, they – not the boss – will decide who gets to stay, and who has to go.
Imagine Survivor, except instead of huts, we’ll see cubicles. And instead of healthy competition, we’ll see a volcanic eruption of pent up rage.
It sounds awful right? Sure, you’ll watch it. But it’s a sick concept, isn’t it? The audacity! My sentiments exactly…at first.
I’ve watched enough Hills episodes to know that Reality TV is anything but. So before I can formulate an opinion about the show (which shade of disdain, that is), there are a few questions I need answered.
Who are these companies? Do the employees agree to take part beforehand? Are the companies getting paid? Are they even real? What’s the timeslot?
And how will the employees who do survive the layoff ever be able to face one another, let alone work together again? It all seems pretty far-fetched.
I prefer to just assume that everyone’s cashing in (including the so-called employees), and save my outrage for more offensive trends in television (like Late Night With Jimmy Fallon).
As long as Someone’s Gotta Go doesn’t replace American Dad, I feel nothing.
I appreciate that though the article you link to says the show will be Survivor meets the Office, you only compared it to Survivor. That’s because you’re classy and you realize that to try and tie this in with a genuinely good TV show is worthy of a kick in the teeth.
I have the same general questions you do and also wonder how far from reality this show will stray. No matter the degree of fakeness, though, it’s in such poor taste that I think a roasted pig with a lobster in its mouth, shrimp on its back, and eggs by its sides served at a kosher feast would go over better. Not to mention it’s done by the Big Brother fools, and that’s one of the worst RBTV shows ever.
I agree that everyone must be taking home a cut, including the employees. I also think the Professional Business Coach and the labor lawyers who agreed to work on this clusterf*** of non-professionalism and lawsuit-worthy shenanigans were probably unemployed and desperate to do anything.
Not to mention that, yes, if it interferes with Animation Domination in any way whatsoever, the gloves will be off, and I will write an angry letter.
Fox has just dug a crawlspace underneath it’s all-time low. It’s all good when Reality shows are mocking some spoiled rich kid’s life who has no concept of life outside of their bubble, but now they’re mocking MY life. And that’s unacceptable.
…and here I thought I was the only one that thought Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was the lamest show ever.
Yes, “Someone’s Gotta Go” is going to be in very bad taste. (Of course it will be; it’s a Fox reality show.) But how many of us are going to watch at least the first episode anyway?
Me me me!
I would not be surprised if my former company is going to be featured in Someone’s Gotta Go. We were in the same building as the company producing the show and I’m sure the revolving door was a clue…
Junk!
What a kick in the gut!
I think I will go to my local Fox affiliate and lay in the grass in front of there office with a sign that reads, “Kick me in the nuts please!”
I’m not a reality TV fan to begin with but even this is a new low – even for FOX! The same idiots who nearly destroyed the Los Angeles Dodgers and couldn’t find their asses with both hands and a GPS are now trying to sell our pain as entertainment?!?!?!?
This has bad written all over it. It is a bad idea, it would be a bad show, it would be painful to watch and no one is going to want to watch it anyway. But just you wait, the Rain-men at FOX are going to want to pool all of the resources they can behind this farce because they find it amusing.
You know what would be amusing to me? If there was a reality show produced by…oh let’s say for the sake of argument MSNBC, and this reality show would go behind the scenes of the department at FOX that dreamed up this monstrosity. Then we would get to watch a FOX executive get a pink slip, one every week, until the office has been completely purged of all of the jackasses who dreamed up this fiasco. Yeah, that’s it, let’s have a reality show where dumb-ass network executives lose their jobs.
Now that’s entertainment!
NO, I would not watch such a show!
No, no, no..say it isn’t true.
But if it is…maybe a few of the contestants for “Who’s Gotta Go” could be Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Greta van Susteren and Shepard Smith.
Thanks for the reality check Jon.
Wow. What a tasteless venture. I’m not a fan of reality shows but having been unemployed for months, I simply cannot find anything remotely positive to say about a show like this. Sad… so very sad. What’s next? Survivor – Wall Street? Big Brother – the Motor City? I agree with everyone above – poor taste.