Us... And Them

TV appeals to the lowest common denominator, I think most of us will agree on that.  And, as of the last few years, it's become increasingly worse.  We take average people, and we see what they'd be willing to do for their fifteen minutes and a small cash prize.

This, by the way, isnt' truly what bothers me - there are a lot of dumb people out there, and I don't need TV to convince me of that.  What bugs me is how popular these reality shows are.  How there is such a huge market for stupid people eating bugs.  Women competing for the attentions of some mass-market male in the fakest of "relationships".  And so on, and so forth.

We like watching the dregs of society.  What's the deal?

I had an idea for game show last night, just before I drifted off to sleep.  It's called "Us... or them?"  and it's really pretty simple.

Each episode starts off with two contestants, and each contestant begins the game with fifty thousand dollars.  During each "challenge" (and the challenges vary from fear-factor-esque bug-eating challenges, to trivia questions, to embarrassing deeds), the two contestants compete against each other - and whoever wins gets to take money from the other person's pool, and add it to their own. 

Here's the kick, though.  One of the contestants is a celebrity, and is working for a charity of his choosing.  Any money he earns goes towards the charity.  Naturally, this being TV, the "Celebrity" is probably someone long-forgotten, who really wants his fifteen minutes of fame back.  He's going to do his damnedest to win some cash for those poor starving Ethiopian Vegans who are also members of PETA and believe in free-trade organic coffee. 

The other contestant is not a celebrity, and he gets to keep all the money for himself.  Essentially, he's taking money that could be going to a charitable cause, and using it for personal gain.  To insure that we don't get some guy that's going to take a dive and let the charity get all the money, though, we'll make sure our non-celebrity really needs the money.  In fact, we'll frame the show by showing just how desperate "Matilda the Crack Ho" is.  If we play this right, the audience could get mad at the celebrity for winning and taking the money away from Poor Matilda, just to feed some silly Ethiopian children. 

The point of it all is, the audience watches a show where, no matter the outcome, there is no clear winner.  I want to see a TV show out there that makes the audience feel dirty.  Shamed. 

...Oh.  I forgot to mention.  The host is Bob Barker.