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NBC Says "Out with the Old, In with the Child Exploitation"
Frasier and Friends have said farewell, so is it time for NBC to close up shop as well? Probably, but first they're going to start a youth movement, with the new reality series The Classroom, which stars 18 bright-eyed first-graders looking for a piece of the reality-stardom pie.
This won't simply be an in-class "behave as you would" anthropology experiment. On the contrary, our young monkeys will be put to the test in a survivor-like competition, complete with grueling immunity challenges, which will include such feats as building a fire and running with scissors.
Playground alliances will prove crucial early on, as each week's castaway will be sent to a factory in China, to spend the remainder of his/her childhood making top-dollar athletic shoes.
And the prize? The last child standing (or not working in China) will be awarded a lifetime supply of...top-dollar athletic shoes! (The irony is mostly for the viewer's benefit.)
To play up the emotional angle, the children will get a special place to vent their frustrations: one sandbox, one camera, and the chance to just be real. The potential is quite limitless, as a child's external monologue could include anything, from strategizing to get the biggest power player on the next tugboat to China; expressing gloominess over a "below-the-poverty-line" existence, or even facing up to a pesky bout of bed-wetting that just won't go away. Needless to say, the emotional content will be in good supply.
Good segment potential aside, how could a show that creates MORE child labor be anything but abhorrent? Well, taping has yet to begin, but for the parents who have offered up their kids in the name of "Sweeps," plenty of hush money, er, compensation has been provided. As for society, it's expected that voting out a child and adding him/her to the Nike staff will create enough of an outrage to abolish child labor once and for all.
So the end sum appears as such: first-class entertainment – some sacrificial lambs + eventually winning the war on child labor = another winner for NBC.
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