New reality TV phenomenon is ... philanthropy

[T_i_B]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1928028,00.html

It's a pitch from broadcasters so familiar it barely registers - a reality show with a twist. But Secret Millionaire, a new Channel 4 show from the makers of Wife Swap, is genuinely different. For a start there are no prizes and it costs contestants up to £50,000 each to take part.

Not for them the promise of tabloid infamy or the lure of profitable spin-offs and book deals. Instead, they are forced to live on the breadline and give their own money away.

"It's the first show in the world where you have to guarantee to give £40,000 or £50,000 away to get on it," promises Stephen Lambert, executive producer of the programme for RDF.

But Secret Millionaire could match the fury provoked by its Bafta-winning predecessor Wife Swap when it first aired in 2003 and newspapers called it "an abuse of TV's Godlike power". Some charities will complain that the show is exploitative and an inefficient means of redistributing wealth among those who most need help.

[NMMNG]

1. If people get help, what harm can come of it?

It's much better than the usual reality shows where the object of the game is to backstab your way to a prize.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Because those people will not have earned the money.........

and as we all know, handouts to the poor just encourages them to stay on the dole. :eyes: Nope, this is not a good christian television show. "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day"............ blah, blah, blah. :sarcasm:

They should teach these people how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Unfortunately, most don't HAVE bootstraps. Oh well, another "reality" TV show I can avoid watching. I find "reality" TV anything BUT. Just my opinion.

[NMMNG]

3. Meh

And the twits on other reality shows "deserve" what they get?

And who's to say the people who get what the contestants on this show give are "undeserving bums"? They may very well be hardworking stiffs who just need an extra boost. There are plenty of those types here who work as many as three jobs and still can't make a decent living thanks to current policies.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. No, the likely objections are that it's a show

People may say that if someone rich wanted to give money to help people, all they have to do is get involved in charities - talk to them, get information from them, see what they do, and give their money and/or expertise to those they think do a good job - without making a TV documentary about it.

I don't know if it will be "exploitative" or "poverty tourism". The rich people who are mentioned as doing it aren't famous, so they probably aren't publicity-hungry types - in which case, it may turn out to be a genuine look at poverty, asylum seekers, and so on, with the donors getting an idea of the reality, which may start them being invovled in the long term. Or it could be all "John is used to filet mignon - now he's got to find the cheapest tin of baked beans, ho, ho" which doesn't really help anyone.