My Reality T.V. Show Idea

So it was the grand finale of American Idol over the last 2 nights and my wife and I really wanted to watch the shows. Only trouble was we have just moved into a new house and cable T.V. hasn't been turned on yet. To remedy the situation on Tuesday, we fashioned the children in their PJ's, grabbed some microwave popcorn and took a portable T.V. over to our empty rental home who's cable service I was still paying for. It was 7:55pm, 5 minutes before the start of the show. I started to hook the T.V. up and much to my horror I noticed that the T.V., being portable, was made to plug into the lighter of a car, not an AC receptacle. Something had to be done. This was a dire emergency.

The new house we are living in is literally 5 miles away from the rental. I figured I could get there and back in time and hopefully only miss one song. So I sprinted to the minivan, sped out to the new house, flew out of my car, sprinted upstairs, ripped the 27-inch T.V. out of the kid's entertainment center, flew back downstairs while ignoring the discomfort of carrying the T.V., ran to the car, threw the T.V. in the front seat and started speeding back. About midway down the road, I glanced at the clock... 8:07... It'll be OK! I'm GONNA MAKE IT!!!... Then it dawned on me: "Oh, my God. I've hit rock bottom". "I'm in desperation for a reality T.V. show". "I'm now officially completely domesticated".

Someday we'll look back on this decade as the reality T.V. show decade. We'll think about how silly we all were for getting so caught up in the foray. People are already getting a little sick of it, but something keeps us coming back. So, before reality T.V. shows ride off into the sunset, I'd like to put my bid in for a new reality T.V. show called: "The American Dream".

The American Dream will have about 20 contestants. The contestants will all be chosen based on the best 20 business plans that were submitted and then judged by a panel of venture capitalists. Each contestant will get $100,000 in funding from the producers of the show along with anonymous funding from some of the investors. The contestants will start the business with the seed capital and run the business for 3 months. Then the show will summarize the first 3 months and the contest will begin. The contestants can hire whoever they want and run their business from anywhere they want. Each week financial statements will be submitted and the investor judges will let one entrepreneur go until there's one left standing. Each week curve balls will be thrown in, like materials shortages or employee discrimination lawsuits, to see how the business owners react. All of the businesses that lose can keep running their business, but they have to pay back the original $100,000 investment. The winner, doesn't have to pay the original investment back and will be considered for a lucrative buyout or even an IPO. The lucky business owner can decide at the end to either stay with the company or settle down and retire.

I think this would be cool. I'd watch it. But when I think about it, this is the real reality show. The one we live and breathe every day. The difference is that some of us chose to play the game and some of us choose to drive back and forth with T.V.'s in a desperate pursuit to experience a piece of a show like American Idol. Congratulations, Carrie.