Bosses suit up for blue-collar jobs Undercover Boss returns to champion underdog employees and humble chief executives. By Deborah Hill Cone.
The name is misleading.
Undercover Boss USA sounds like it is about industrial espionage with a chief executive catching out panty-sniffers Target-style or slacker workers playing poker on the job. It's not.
The opening titles are also misleading. They show lit-up skyscrapers a la Donald Trump, which makes it look like its going to be yet another piece of greed-is-good propaganda.
It is nothing like that. In fact, I imagine champion of the underdog, Michael Moore, who has made documentaries glorifying working-class Americans, may even approve of Undercover Boss USA, albeit finding it a little saccharine. That's because what it is really about is not bosses, or business, but the heroism of the little guy - ordinary blue-collar workers who work damn hard and yet keep their spirits up and their sense of humour.
It has certainly connected with mainstream television viewers. It was the most popular new show last year in any genre in the United States, with an average audience of 17.7 million viewers.
The set-up is that a chief executive of a major corporation goes incognito into the company, working in entry-level positions, and gets an uncensored view of how the company is doing. The new season, starting on TV One on Tuesday, features Steve Joyce, the head honcho of Choice Hotels, the parent company of several budget hotel chains. He really does look like the archetypal fat cat - and when he has to work in a lowly position he sweats and stumbles and can't hack the pace. It is wonderfully satisfying to watch. "It was hard, it was hot, it was humbling," he says after a single day working in maintenance at a Florida branch. Alongside him is Ricardo, a jolly chap who works two jobs seven days a week to support his son through college - and manages to remain cheerful about it. Joyce, meanwhile, looks pretty shamefaced. In housekeeping, Joyce encounters Christina, a perky maid who manages to "have a passion" for keeping hotel toilets clean. At the front desk he works alongside Brandalynn, whose parents chucked her out when she became pregnant at 16 and, despite living in her car for a while, has succeeded. "I've surpassed what they said I couldn't do," Brandalynn tells him, and it seems churlish to point out the mangled English. There is even a Death of a Salesman incident as Joyce attempts cold-call sales alongside sales manager Joe.
Of course, this being an American prime-time show, there is a lot of hugging and crying and hamming it up as Joyce is revealed as the company's big kahuna.
No amount of TV treacle, however, can disguise the uplifting message of celebration of the noble ordinary working person. It's a good message. I like Undercover Boss USA because it isn't actually about the bosses but about the workers. I hope a local version is being planned.
* Undercover Boss USA returns to TV One on Tuesday at 8.30pm.
- Herald On Sunday / View
