Reality (TV) at UC-Riverside

Some time back, before “reality” TV became popular, BBC had a program in which the CEO of a firm or organization would visit worksites and perform regular jobs to see what was really happening. For an example, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfdW6mgBEG0. (In that excerpt, the CEO of a fast food chain in the UK visits a local restaurant.) Canadian broadcasting later made a similar series.

Now that reality TV is much in vogue, CBS has “Undercover Boss” which is based on the same premise. However, in the CBS version, the CEO fixes the various problems discovered, hands out money and benefits to employees, and the episodes often end tearfully.

The chancellor of UC-Riverside, Timothy White, was featured on the program on May 1 (although the West Coast version may have been pre-empted by the Osama Bin Laden presidential media announcement). The chancellor visits a chemistry professor, a student library assistant, a track coach, and a student tour guide. Typically, in the show, the CEOs are somewhat bumbling in trying to do ordinary jobs and so it was in this episode.

You can see the episode (with commercials) at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/video/?pid=d7kArzbx9jnyYNiHkEA8_EhGo2Akeg9E

The tour guide at the end receives a scholarship and both cry – the guide because her father in is a coma after a car accident and the chancellor because his father died in a car accident.

Update: UC-Riverside’s PR guy comments on the above at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/05/05/grant_on_the_chancellor_who_became_an_undercover_boss