Reality TV

Why is television so nasty? Take big brother where they put a load of people in a house and wind them up so they fight like crabs in a bucket. Surely we can make programs that are entertaining and positive?

Big Brother*/Survivor: who wants to be stuck in a house or an island by themselves? How is getting rid of everyone a goal? Here is my alternative program. You start with a plot of land a small hut and building supplies. Each week your task is to learn a new building skill. A new person joins every week who gets voted in by the public. After 12 weeks you have a bunch of people who have been trained with useful skills, you have houses for people to live in and you have a community.

The apprentice: It takes you an entire series to give someone a job? With the amount of effort these people make you could create jobs for hundreds of people. Get the job applicants and tell them they have to start a business that gives work for one person that week. If they fail they do not get any money next week and are out of the show. So over the course of 12 weeks you have a bunch of people creating their own business and employing people. The best (most successful at creating business/employment) person wins.

Jamie Oliver is an annoying tool but at least 15, where he trains up kids in how to work in a restaurant is a positive program. Why do all these other programs have to be like gladiatorial contests? Technology, the rule of law and capitalism have gotten us to the point where there is no need for people to lack the basic necessities of life. We need not continue to gorge ourselves till we puke like two year olds after trick or treating. Why cannot programs explain how much ability we have to improve the world and celebrate this ability?


*If you do not like this idea I have an alternative pitch “Big Buddha”. We put people from all sorts of religious orders in the house and then tempt them with sin. So the celibate Catholic priest has hourly lap dances. The serene Buddhist monk has to talk to Jade Goody all day. The one who survives temptation the longest wins.