Main Street

Undercover Boss?

The big new show, premiering right after the Super Bowl, is “Undercover Boss.” Corporate CEOs walk a mile in their employees’ shoes! They clean port-a-potties! They hear how unhappy their employees are!

That could be worthwhile. Or it could be a “reality” as real as all the “reality” shows where 90% of the women have breast implants. (I mean, I don’t know about you, but in my reality the number is somewhat lower…)

In each of 10 episodes, “Undercover Boss” will follow a different honcho of a major company as he or she goes through training for various jobs, some of them involving gritty, backbreaking manual labor. The camera crew that shadows the incognito CEO is explained as a tool for documenting job tryouts, so existing workers know they’re being filmed.

Along the way, the CEO is paired with employees who have legitimate bones to pick or can shed light on procedural ills. The bosses are on a dual mission: to get a front-line look at their company to see how things can be done better and to find workers who deserve recognition, which Tassler said put the series “directly in the zeitgeist” by glorifying the little guy.

The show’s creative team views the program as a “formatted documentary” instead of a garden-variety reality series because it has a definite formula and special set of requirements.

The boss, for instance, has to be unrecognizable to the rank and file and willing to give a week’s worth of his or her time to head into the trenches to try a handful of entry-level jobs. He or she also must want to make changes that will improve the workers’ lives while allowing them to complain about the problems.

About that “formatted documentary” thing.

The workers appearing on the program have signed releases to be in a documentary film, not a television show. Presumably, that means it’s not covered by AFTRA which requires minimum payments for TV appearances.

Undercover Boss producers have labeled the show a “formatted documentary” instead of a reality series. According to one of the producers, “It is absolutely normal to make a documentary about people going about doing their work and not pay compensation.”

That’s true, but it’s also deceptive to the people involved in the show. They’re making the program work and receiving nothing for their efforts… except for the thrill of being included in the broadcast.

But there’s another question: Is it “real” if at the end of the day, the CEO is going home to his giant house and giant salary? I mean, doing the actual dirty work can teach you one set of things. But living on what the workers make, relying on the health care they rely on, knowing that you don’t have an unlimited safety net—that’s not something the show can possibly get into.

If you watch it, we’re curious. What did you think? What was your favorite part? Do you think that CEO got a real taste of “reality”? What parts of life do you think were left out?