The WaPo’s TV column:
Fox has fast-tracked a reality series in which real companies that are struggling to stay afloat in this lousy economy agree to let their staffs decide who among them will get pink-slipped to cut costs.
Fox is already in production on “Someone’s Gotta Go,” having lined up companies — smaller, Dunder Mifflin-esque outfits with 15 to 20 employees — Fox’s reality-series madman/genius Mike Darnell told the TV Column. We sounded incredulous. Darnell notes that every time he comes up with one of these trashtastic reality series, we ask the same question: What on Earth would motivate anyone to be on this show? And his answer is always the same: “They want to be on TV. Who knows? There’s never a shortage.”
Each week, a different company will be showcased. Each week, that company’s boss or owner will call the employees together and tell them someone has to be laid off. He or she will give the employees all the available information about one another — salaries, job evaluations, etc. — and let them decide who gets the pink slip.
Darnell thinks millions of Americans who fear for their jobs or have lost them will flock to a TV series in which someone loses a job every week, because the show is about … Wish Fulfillment.
