New CBS Reality TV Show Exploits Poor by making them grovel for $100,000

[kairos12]

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/the-hunger-games-new-cbs-reality-show-exploits-poor-families-by-making-them-grovel-for-101000/
As if to prove there are new depths to be plumbed in the world of reality television (because who knew?), CBS just debuted The Briefcase, a show which takes poverty porn, class anxiety, emotional manipulation and exploitation and packages them all neatly into a pretty despicable hour of primetime television. Kicking off each episode with the question, “What would you do with $101,000?” the show then deep-dives into a competition that asks two unwitting, financially strapped families to choose between two no-win options: being financially solvent yet appearing heartless and greedy, or drowning in debt yet having audiences recognize them as selfless and giving.

Reality TV is the new gladiator arena for bread and circuses. I would rather watch a show where the One Percenters at CBS, who created this monstrosity, try to rationalize their way out of not being dragged to the National Razor.

[closeupready]

1. Yeah, I watched this and thought it was degrading.

And abusive and cruel.

Take a family in crisis, play with their finances, sell ad time in order to profit - what could possibly be offensive about this concept?

[Exilednight]

2. I caught the end of the show. It was a bit pathetic the way they manipulate

People. It's the new compassionate capitalism that dovetails nicely with compassionate conservatism. It's disgusting.

[demmiblue]

3. That is just sick.

How do these people live with themselves?

[KarenS]

4. Yep,,, We passed on this one.

Since all the discussion about reality TV in the past week, I've been really thinking about this kind of programming and what it's doing to folks both participants and consumers of it.

[Cleita]

5. Reminds me of the old "Queen For a Day" back in the fifties.

Here poor women, often single mothers, or married women whose husbands couldn't work anymore because of injury or other disability had to grovel with other women contestants to win some prizes and help for their main money problem.

Of course the women with the most dire needs would become the queen. But it was very dehumanizing and humiliating often for those women. Yet they lived in a world where women made 63 cents to the dollar that men earned for menial work and mostly they could never look forward to promotion on the job because only men got those jobs. So they suffered the public humiliation for a chance out of poverty.

Of course, back then, it was only white women who participated. I was a teenager back then, but even as young as I was I could see how degrading the program was.

[GeorgeGist]

6. It was very high tech ...

This lady wasn't pathetic enough.

[lookatme]

7. It sounds pretty fun so I'm not seeing

a great deal wrong with this?

I read the plot of the game and why do you think it's degrading??

[csziggy]

12. Did you actually read the article linked in the OP?

It explains thoroughly why the show is degrading. What the article does not say explicitly is that the producers of the show could easily give $200,000 to each of the families and still make millions in profit.

The degrading part is that the poor featured in the show are mislead and not told that the other family is also given the same choice as they are. They are led to believe that if they don't share the money they desperately need the other family will be left in need - both families are being LIED to and forced into a fake dilemma.

Why put these people through this angst? Why not make a show that GIVES people money and shows how they can make their lives better? Or, if they want to force a choice on people, provide money and let them select which good causes in their community it should go to - their schools, a food bank, health care, etc.

Lying to people and putting them in pain for the sake of ratings is degrading.

[lookatme]

13. There's two shows airing at the same time called the Hunger games then

Edit

My apology

the other show is based on the hunger games but it's called the hunt.

[csziggy]

15. No, the one discussed in this thread is called "The Briefcase"

And has nothing to do with the movie "The Hunger Games."

[AngryOldDem]

8. BBC planning a similar show in the UK -- Britain's Hardest Grafter

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/28/bbc-defends-reality-show-involving-poor-dubbed-hunger-games

The show, called Britain’s Hardest Grafter, is seeking 25 of Britain’s poorest workers with applications limited to those who earn or receive benefits totalling less than £15,500 a year.

The five-part BBC2 series will pit contestants against each other in a series of jobs and tasks with the “least effective workers” asked to leave until one is crowned champion.

The winner will receive a cash prize of about £15,500, the minimum annual wage for workers outside London.

Gladiator arena is right...

"It [the BBC] explained that contestants would work in jobs that will “take place both out in the workplace and within the confines of a specially created factory, a warehouse space … transformed to cover the UK’s largest blue collar sectors.”

High entertainment for the ruling classes.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Remember when TLC

was really "The Learning Channel", giving us programming that educated and uplifted us, rather than just being human cockfighting?

Americans have been eating up this crap for a long time, we have yet to see the depravity which it will eventually devolve into.

[Fred Sanders]

10. Not content to ignore the poor, now the corporate/bank media want to humiliate the poor for entertainment?

Does anyone remember where we stored those guillotines?

[lookatme]

11. Is this two different shows?

Are you the real Katniss? Hunger Games-themed reality show seeks aspiring Tributes to compete for survival in the wilderness



Why do you find this offensive?


The Hunger Games has inspired the premise for an upcoming survivalist-themed reality series.


The Hunt, which is expected to air on The CW this summer, will show 12 teams of two people competing for the resources and tools they need to survive for one month in the wilderness.


According to the New York Post, a casting call for the show reads: 'Think you have what it takes to defeat your opponents while battling the elements? A major broadcast network is looking for teams of two where you and your partner will be both the hunter and the hunted

[bluesbassman]

14. Are these tributes going to kill each other?

If not (and I'm sure they won't) then it's just another Survivor spin-off. I personally don't care for those types of shows as they tend to glorify conniving as a virtue, and aside from some temporary discomfort there are no lasting damages incurred for failure.

However, the show in the OP is really on a different level as these people are facing serious long term ramifications from the decisions required of them on the show.

Doesn't seem "fun" to watch to me.

[Logical]

16. I blame the stupidity of the Americans watching this shit. Not CBS. nt