We really are edging closer and closer to Running Man with reality TV

This is  a repeat

HA!

I've had a bottle of champaign saved just for this occasion*. Exploiting people's desperation for employment for game show fodder is downright evil. Doing it in front of a live studio audience is even worse.

/* - At least I would if I had a good-paying job.

Mugato: Gee, who would thought in this economy people wouldn't want to watch some poor bastards going through the hell that is job searching/interviews.

The thing that's perhaps most shocking is that CBS execs thought that such a show just might actually have legs.

First I've ever heard of it.

Wouldn't have watched it though.

I would applaud this effort if they weren't replacing it with more "Undercover Boss".

kmaywfec: I would applaud this effort if they weren't replacing it with more "Undercover Boss".

In the media's breathless desperation to condition us to believe that executives and corporations are the Good Guys, living only to benefit us uncultured, unwashed poors, you enjoy the small victories.

fatalvenom: ThatGuyFromTheInternet: This is  a repeat

But that show was actually good.

'Twas. Thankfully they built Rescue Me on its ashes.

JerseyTim: Much sadness in the crap part of Soho. Stay positive!

Sammy still has Pukka Pies & Boddies to keep him company.

Mugato: Gee, who would thought in this economy people wouldn't want to watch some poor bastards going through the hell that is job searching/interviews.

Well, me, but I'm actually friends with Lisa (I've known her since about 2007 when I showed up at her old blog on Uber), so I may be a little biased.

DON.MAC: How do you cancel a show after 2 episodes?  They would have already made most of a season and it has all been paid for by someone.  Is it just throwing money away or is there now a "direct to dvd" market for TV shows?

Well, when it pulls the same numbers Do No Harm did and half the numbers that the show that had been airing in the timeslot pulled, it's a pretty unsurprising call.

The Great EZE: HA!

I've had a bottle of champaign saved just for this occasion*. Exploiting people's desperation for employment for game show fodder is downright evil. Doing it in front of a live studio audience is even worse.

/* - At least I would if I had a good-paying job.

That was not the intent at all, at least not from Lisa's perspective. To her, the jobs being handed out really truly were dream jobs, because of the growth potential attached to them. She once tweeted to someone, "Life doesn't change; you have to change it." That's Lisa at her core. She's never been about just handing you everything in life on a silver platter. She's always been about assuring that you have the tools to go make a future for yourself. Sometimes that means a little bit of a push in the right direction; sometimes that means assuring you that you already have the tools. If Lisa was a video game cheat code, she would not be godmode. She would be five extra lives and a very encouraging 'You Can Do It! Good Luck!' Her intentions were pure, even if the execution was flawed.

What I think happened here was that The Job was a bit too honest about its prizes. You remember the Cracked 'ugly reality of reality shows' article we had a day or two ago. We talked about how Hell's Kitchen pretty much never actually gives the winner the announced position. American Idol promises stardom, but in reality these days, the winner gets an ironclad contract and a one-hit-wonder career where the hit has already been written for them. The Apprentice has not actually offered anyone employment since 2007.

The Job, on the other hand, did exactly what it set out to do as far as employment. In fact, it did more than it promised it would do. It promised one person a job per episode, and in the two episodes that aired, they hired five people. (According to Lisa, had the show made it through the full eight episodes, the total would have been 16 jobs.) That's a hell of a lot faster pace than any other reality show out there. Others offered one job a season; Lisa was handing out two an episode. And for all the criticisms the show picked up, one thing nobody accused the Job of was overstating the jobs on offer. When Lisa said there was an assistant manager position available, you didn't find anyone going 'well, yeah, that's what they're SAYING; now let's see what they actually give the winner'. If the show had simply lied and called the jobs executive positions or something, it would have been several years before word got out. But then they'd have been lying.

Cheron: We really are edging closer and closer to Running Man with reality TV

I think you mean "Celebrity Rehab" so we already have it

DON.MAC: How do you cancel a show after 2 episodes?  They would have already made most of a season and it has all been paid for by someone.  Is it just throwing money away or is there now a "direct to dvd" market for TV shows?

I think the idea is to just cut your losses. You've got the sunk cost in producing 5-6 episodes, so don't compound it by airing a show advertisers won't pay for when you could air repeats of a show people would actually watch. Use some Hollywood accounting to shift some of that cost to "Lord of the Rings" so you can pay Peter Jackson less in royalties, and air something in the timeslot that actually brings viewers.

Gosling: The Great EZE: HA!

I've had a bottle of champaign saved just for this occasion*. Exploiting people's desperation for employment for game show fodder is downright evil. Doing it in front of a live studio audience is even worse.

/* - At least I would if I had a good-paying job.

That was not the intent at all, at least not from Lisa's perspective. To her, the jobs being handed out really truly were dream jobs, because of the growth potential attached to them. She once tweeted to someone, "Life doesn't change; you have to change it." That's Lisa at her core. She's never been about just handing you everything in life on a silver platter. She's always been about assuring that you have the tools to go make a future for yourself. Sometimes that means a little bit of a push in the right direction; sometimes that means assuring you that you already have the tools. If Lisa was a video game cheat code, she would not be godmode. She would be five extra lives and a very encouraging 'You Can Do It! Good Luck!' Her intentions were pure, even if the execution was flawed.

What I think happened here was that The Job was a bit too honest about its prizes. You remember the Cracked 'ugly reality of reality shows' article we had a day or two ago. We talked about how Hell's Kitchen pretty much never actually gives the winner the announced position. American Idol promises stardom, but in reality these days, the winner gets an ironclad contract and a one-hit-wonder career where the hit has already been written for them. The Apprentice has not actually offered anyone employment since 2007.

The Job, on the other hand, did exactly what it set out to do as far as employment. In fact, it did more than it promised it would do. It promised one person a job per episode, and in the two episodes that aired, they hired five people. (According to Lisa, had the show made it through the full eight episodes, the total would have been 16 jobs.) That's a hell of a lot faster pace than any other reality ...

I appreciate the instinct to defend your friend. And in her defense she probably did think the show was supposed to do more good than harm. But I sincerely doubt the producers had the same ambition and it  definitely came across as something much more toxic than your post would suggest.

Even the most miserable pessimist doesn't consider an assistant-level position anywhere a "dream job." And it's certainly not a job worthy of a primetime reality game show. But there it was. In bright lights and big gold font: "Jump through our hoops in front of millions of slack-jawed spectators for a $50K/year job that, 15 years ago, would've been yours with a couple of good interviews and showing up on time. Don't you feel so LUCKY for this OPPORTUNITY? Now embarrass yourself some more; we need to tack 5 more seconds onto this promo."

If these companies really were hiring for these positions, why didn't they afford candidates the dignity of a regular job interview? What value was there in making fun of a nervous fat guy awkwardly pouring wine on TV? What's encouraging about nitpicking someone's performance answering on-the-spot trivia questions before unceremoniously shipping them back to the unemployment line? Where's the positive message in having five bright people grovel on stage for an  assistant-level position. No, this show was exploitative to the core, pushed up the ladder by some absurdly out of touch individuals who thought the rest of America would enjoy seeing the exhausting, frustrating, humbling, at times humiliating search for gainful employment reduced to an hourlong TV game show. We may have fallen as a society, but the cancelation of that nonsense proves we haven't fallen that far. That may be the happiest sentence I write all month.

So 16 jobs were given over the course of eight episodes. Super. I'm happy for the newly employed, I really am. And the only thing it cost were 40 people needing to leverage personal tragedy, desperation, and very very real personal finance crises for a shot...on national TV.

Lisa was just a host (AFAIK), so I am by no means laying blame for this debacle on her. But let's just say I'm glad you're not buddies with Mark Burnett and Michael Davies right now.

The Great EZE: Gosling: The Great EZE: HA!

I've had a bottle of champaign saved just for this occasion*. Exploiting people's desperation for employment for game show fodder is downright evil. Doing it in front of a live studio audience is even worse.

/* - At least I would if I had a good-paying job............

Pretty much this. I, myself, am glad she had pure intentions but the show was anything but.I got maybe ten minutes in before turning it off. It was farking debasing and depressing.

Gah, damn preview button.

The Great EZE: So 16 jobs were given over the course of eight episodes. Super. I'm happy for the newly employed, I really am. And the only thing it cost were 40 people needing to leverage personal tragedy, desperation, and very very real personal finance crises for a shot...on national TV.

The hope was that the TV exposure would give the other 24 a quick job offer from some company or other that was watching at home. Talent-search shows forget that part of the equation a lot. Even if you don't get the job the show is offering, you make a good enough account of yourself and you've still essentially sent out your resume to the entire country all at once. (The same applies if you act like a total incompetent asshole.)

The Great EZE: If these companies really were hiring for these positions, why didn't they afford candidates the dignity of a regular job interview? What value was there in making fun of a nervous fat guy awkwardly pouring wine on TV? What's encouraging about nitpicking someone's performance answering on-the-spot trivia questions before unceremoniously shipping them back to the unemployment line?

The point was to actually see the candidates and talk to them, which they considered an improvement on just tossing your resume out into the ether and hoping for the best. Whatever a resume might say, there's really no substitute for actually putting people to work and seeing what they can actually do. I mean, you've probably had people at your workplace that got hired, put to work, and then immediately flopped. I certainly have. (And according to Lisa, some of the companies from the show are considering changing their hiring practices due to that.)

Gosling:
The hope was that the TV exposure would give the other 24 a quick job offer from some company or other that was watching at home. Talent-search shows forget that part of the equation a lot. Even if you don't get the job the show is offering, you make a good enough account of yourself and you've still essentially sent out your resume to the entire country all at once. (The same applies if you act like a total incompetent asshole.)

That may have been Lisa's hope but I hope you guys can see how that goal can backfire in an ugly way. I saw the first episode. They didn't do many favors for the lady who, in a moment of honesty, admitted to being overwhelmed by what the show called a "Trial By Fire." She spent all of 4 minutes on screen before getting banished to the awkward darkened background. Had the show stayed on, I don't see a better fate for the woman who couldn't speak Spanish or the one who listed their mother as a reference. Fortunately, it turned out that nobody watched "The Job" so their embarrassment should be minimal.

Gosling: The point was to actually see the candidates and talk to them, which they considered an improvement on just tossing your resume out into the ether and hoping for the best. Whatever a resume might say, there's really no substitute for actually putting people to work and seeing what they can actually do. I mean, you've probably had people at your workplace that got hired, put to work, and then immediately flopped. I certainly have. (And according to Lisa, some of the companies from the show are considering changing their hiring practices due to that.)

Those companies could have done that any. time. they. wanted. Competent companies have been doing that since before reality TV was a glint in some scuzzy uncreative producer's eye.

By the way--and this isn't directed at you personally, just something I remembered--I've heard arguments that the show was trying to prep viewers for their own job interviews. That may have been the most condescending load of BS I ever read re: that show. You mean I should wear a clean shirt and groom myself before going on an interview? Thanks, "The Job!" And I think that gets to the heart of my objection with that concept. You can speculate all you want as to why there are 12 million people looking for work (the politics tab is right over there). But I refuse to believe it's because Americans suddenly forgot how to interview. No, "The Job" was a hamfisted attempt for major companies to get a hour of free advertisement while boosting a fallacious notion that they just want to "help" the working class. Thankfully some concepts are so bad that even the most successful reality TV producers can't polish it.

That having been said.

Lisa... ceded control of her wardrobe. She's a very casual dresser. Which means someone, in one of the unaired episodes, decided to put her in this:



I will have to ask her when exactly it is she became senator of Alderaan.

fatalvenom: ThatGuyFromTheInternet: This is  a repeat

But that show was actually good.

 It was good.  But you could clearly see that it was a template for Rescue Me.

Gosling: Mugato: Gee, who would thought in this economy people wouldn't want to watch some poor bastards going through the hell that is job searching/interviews.

Well, me, but I'm actually friends with Lisa (I've known her since about 2007 when I showed up at her old blog on Uber), so I may be a little biased.

DON.MAC: How do you cancel a show after 2 episodes?  They would have already made most of a season and it has all been paid for by someone.  Is it just throwing money away or is there now a "direct to dvd" market for TV shows?

Well, when it pulls the same numbers Do No Harm did and half the numbers that the show that had been airing in the timeslot pulled, it's a pretty unsurprising call.

The Great EZE: HA!

I've had a bottle of champaign saved just for this occasion*. Exploiting people's desperation for employment for game show fodder is downright evil. Doing it in front of a live studio audience is even worse.

/* - At least I would if I had a good-paying job.

That was not the intent at all, at least not from Lisa's perspective. To her, the jobs being handed out really truly were dream jobs, because of the growth potential attached to them. She once tweeted to someone, "Life doesn't change; you have to change it." That's Lisa at her core. She's never been about just handing you everything in life on a silver platter. She's always been about assuring that you have the tools to go make a future for yourself. Sometimes that means a little bit of a push in the right direction; sometimes that means assuring you that you already have the tools. If Lisa was a video game cheat code, she would not be godmode. She would be five extra lives and a very encouraging 'You Can Do It! Good Luck!' Her intentions were pure, even if the execution was flawed.

What I think happened here was that The Job was a bit too honest about its prizes. You remember the Cracked 'ugly reality of reality shows' article we had a day or two ago. We talked about how Hell's Kitchen pretty much never ...

Showing up on her blog in 2007 does not exactly constitute "friends."

unfarkingbelievable: Showing up on her blog in 2007 does not exactly constitute "friends."

That was how we met.

Me with her, me with her husband.

Second link fail. Trying again.

Gosling: Mugato: Gee, who would thought in this economy people wouldn't want to watch some poor bastards going through the hell that is job searching/interviews.

Well, me, but I'm actually friends with Lisa (I've known her since about 2007 when I showed up at her old blog on Uber), so I may be a little biased.


Could you please have a quiet word with her then about scrubbing all that damn makeup off her eyes?   Looking at her reminded me of Mimi from the old Drew Carey show.

The Great EZE: fallacious

Thank you -- this is my new favourite word for now. I'm never going to write it though -- its only to be used while speaking.

ThatGuyFromTheInternet: [j.static-locatetv.com image 267x200]
This is  a repeat

Loved that show.