‘Somebody’s Gotta Go’: Fox’s layoff reality show

Fox is turning our “unemployment pain” into a reality show, said Sarah Ball in Newsweek. The network is developing a show called Someone’s Gotta Go, in which a small company is told by management that layoffs are coming, and “the staff gets to pick who gets the axe.” Sure it’s kind of “eeeevil,” but as far as TV goes, it sounds pretty “awesome.”

Really? said Bob Sassone in TV Squad. “Please note that these are real employees at a real company who are really going to lose their jobs, not to mention have their personal details revealed on national television.” The premise of Somebody’s Gotta Go is “insulting and embarrassing.”

Fox does seem to be taking “another bold step toward live televised executions,” said Lane Brown in New York magazine. But “we can't imagine any universe in which real, recession-affected people might watch something like this.” Then again, “Americans have certainly surprised us before!”

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