Dear god....Introducing the BBC's new reality TV show: Benefits Street meets The Hunger Games
The BBC will make the unemployed and low-paid workers compete against each other for a cash prize in a controversial Hunger Games-type show to find ““Britain’s Hardest Grafter”.
The BBC plan to screen a "Hunger Games" style game show will make unemployed people and low-paid workers compete in a series of challenges and tasks in competition for a cash prize. Only the UK’s lowest-paid workers and the unemployed will be invited to compete.
At the end of each episode, those who have produced the least will be eliminated and by the end of the process, just one worker will remain. The winner will receive in the region of £15,000 which is estimated to be a year’s living wage, outside of London.
This is the next rung down the ladder in the disturbing trend of voyeuristic "poverty porn" made popular in programmes like 'Benefits Street'.
Unemployment and poverty are serious social issues and should not be the subject of a cheap game show format, designed to exploit some of the most impoverished in our society for the purposes of dubious "entertainment".
Not even the cheapest and tackiest of the cable or satellite channels have stooped to this level. We believe a higher standard should be expected from the BBC, a national broadcaster that is funded by public subscription in the form of the license fee.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-to-pit-lowpaid-against-each-other-in-hunger-gamesstyle-show-to-find-britains-hardest-grafter-10279386.html
And if you're disgusted by that:
The BBC: Stop the BBC's "Hunger Games" Style Show - Sign the Petition!
384 signatures are still needed!
https://www.change.org/p/the-bbc-stop-the-bbc-s-hunger-games-style-show
The BBC states that its mission is...
"To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain."
Now that mission apparently includes the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable members of our society as fodder for a game show.
The signatories of this petition strongly object to this degrading and exploitative format and demand that the BBC abandon its plans to broadcast this programme.
The BBC plan to screen a "Hunger Games" style game show will make unemployed people and low-paid workers compete in a series of challenges and tasks in competition for a cash prize. Only the UK’s lowest-paid workers and the unemployed will be invited to compete.
At the end of each episode, those who have produced the least will be eliminated and by the end of the process, just one worker will remain. The winner will receive in the region of £15,000 which is estimated to be a year’s living wage, outside of London.
This is the next rung down the ladder in the disturbing trend of voyeuristic "poverty porn" made popular in programmes like 'Benefits Street'.
Unemployment and poverty are serious social issues and should not be the subject of a cheap game show format, designed to exploit some of the most impoverished in our society for the purposes of dubious "entertainment".
Not even the cheapest and tackiest of the cable or satellite channels have stooped to this level. We believe a higher standard should be expected from the BBC, a national broadcaster that is funded by public subscription in the form of the license fee.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-to-pit-lowpaid-against-each-other-in-hunger-gamesstyle-show-to-find-britains-hardest-grafter-10279386.html
And if you're disgusted by that:
The BBC: Stop the BBC's "Hunger Games" Style Show - Sign the Petition!
384 signatures are still needed!
https://www.change.org/p/the-bbc-stop-the-bbc-s-hunger-games-style-show
The BBC states that its mission is...
"To enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain."
Now that mission apparently includes the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable members of our society as fodder for a game show.
The signatories of this petition strongly object to this degrading and exploitative format and demand that the BBC abandon its plans to broadcast this programme.