OK, I admit I’m attracted to reality TV like a moth to a flame. Much of it is crap. (For what it’s worth, I do try to avoid the worst of it.) But there is something about the social experiment – observing and trying to predict how people will interact in what is an alternate reality, an alternate universe – that I find fascinating.
So, last night I’m watching the season premier of Celebrity Apprentice. While the show is supposedly about which team/individuals can do the best job organizing and leading business related challenges, anyone who has watched it knows that the show is more about doing whatever you have to do to get someone other than you fired – arguing, backstabbing, blaming, throwing teammates under the bus, etc.
The show is more about conflict and teamwork.
(Spoiler alert.)
Donald Trump is a smart guy. He knows this. He knows that if he wants good ratings and doesn’t want his show canceled it’s more important to foster conflict than harmonious teamwork.
So, at the end of the show it comes down to Hershel Walker, Dennis Rodman, and Andrew Dice Clay. Trump has to fire one of them. Walker was the losing project manager. He put his neck on the line when he stepped up to be PM, and while there were problems and his team did lose, IMO he led fairly well. Rodman pulled his weight at times but other times just sat in a truck and did nothing. Clay was a total pain in the backside. He refused to help, went and did his own thing, and argued all the time.
Donald Trump is faced with the decision of who to fire. One (Walker) is a true leader and team player, the other 2 are dysfunctional celebrities who will create conflict as long as they’re on the show.
Under any other circumstances (if this was not a TV show) Walker would be safe by a long shot. But, I was totally convinced Trump would fire Walker because it would be best for his ratings.
I was wrong. Andrew Dice Clay who IMO truly deserved to get fired, did.
Agree with the decision? Disagree?
Since I’m always looking at the social experiment of reality TV, the thing I took away from it is that in so many aspects of life it seems like dysfunctional people – those who are brash, reckless, self-promoting, egotistical – seem to get the breaks in life. Often it’s style over substance. In the long run character and humility will produce better results than dysfunction and egotism, but it’s nice to see it pay off in the short run too. Chalk one up for the good guys.