“Extreme” Exploitation

An email has been doing the rounds in America purporting to be from the casting dept. for Extreme Makeover:Home Edition which shows a worrying trend in tv shows. Just look at the list of requirements of the kind of people they want to feature for the next series! I’m the first to admit to having been quite addicted to this series in the past mostly from a logistical fascination (if you’ve seen the show then you’ll understand that – they tear down homes and rebuild them as luxury houses in 7 days flat). I have noticed that more and more, the families featured have been having worse and worse sob stories and the program is trying too hard to tug at the heartstrings in that oh-so American way (ie: a complete and utter lack of subtlety) and as a result I’ve gone off the program but overall their viewing figures have rocketed so looks like I’m on my own there.