When your fifteen minutes of fame leads to the unemployment line

From those fun loving folks at Fox, proof that when it comes to television you never really do find the bottom of the barrel.

Fox in the spirit of wringing the last bit of human decency from our souls has begun production of the latest in reality shows that could actually make Donald Trump's The Apprentice look like the poster child for humanity.

In production at Fox these days (though no actual date for inclusion in the schedule has been announced yet) is something called "Someone's Gotta Go", a weekly program in which a different small business (15-20 employees or so) will bring in the cameras, open the books and let the employees tear each other apart in a quest to keep their jobs. Now that's team building eh...

The beleaguered employees will be the stars of the reality based trip into hell, where they will be allowed to critique and rail against those they work with, outlining their faults, their bitterness and their wish to see one of them gone, gone, gone...

At the end of each week's episode, the employees will vote on which one of them gets tossed onto the ever growing pile of the unemployed, provided with what is described as a "small severance package from Fox".

Interestingly enough by having the employees turn on themselves in a quest to keep their jobs, the program seems to be removing the concept of corporate leadership out of the mix, allowing the boss of each small business to take a vacation from the one small detail that separates the good companies from the bad, the ability to make a decision.

In many corporations small and large across North America, when the times get tough the employees tend to circle the wagons and find ways to help each other out; whether it's work sharing, voluntary reductions in hourly rates or other more proactive methods of saving the company and their jobs. Few, if any, make the choice of having the employees battle each other to the end to keep their jobs.

But at Fox, in what seems to be more and more an example of the corporate credo from a rather bullying network, it's more of a Lord of the Flies approach to life. One where the uncertainty of your employment status and your ability to claw your way over the top of the person working beside you is the new American way.

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All that's missing are the roving gangs with clubs, the water hoses and those helpful attack dogs of the thirties to bring things full circle when it comes to the employment cycle, perhaps Fox could find some extras looking to make a buck or two to add some authenticity to Someone's Gotta Go.

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Then again perhaps someone should let the audience at Fox know that this great idea is actually from Europe, coming from a Dutch based company. That should be more than enough to bring production at a stand still at the network that likes to wave the flag of all things American and which once celebrated the renaming of French Fries to Freedom Fries because the Government of the Day was mad at France.

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Better yet, perhaps the someone who has to go could be the folks that came up with this idea, now that would be the a Hollywood ending don't you think...