CBS’s Undercover Boss is good at milking the saccharine sweet moments when an owner/CEO reveals his identity at the end of the program, which is followed by said CEO gifting some sort of comfort like a family trip to Disney, free insurance for life, a promotion, or maybe a 25-minute pottery lesson.
The recipient of the offering is usually a terribly hard worker with great ideas that doesn’t get enough credit or payment for their services, and probably has one or two family members that are sick or impaired. That’s the general formula.
Last night’s episode of Undercover Boss did not follow that formula. It strayed far, far away from the standard prescription for a tear-jerking affair. Like, really far. But, before we get to the tender culmination of the episode, let’s first take a look at Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill founder Doug Guller firing an employee after she over-served one customer and mentioned her career aspirations. Neither of these reasons, though, are why she really got fired: she refused to wear her bikini on TV. Watch Guller try to buffer his sexism with logic:
“It’s a big bummer from my point of view.”
Well said, Guller. You managed to colloquially mangle your disapproval while displaying rampant chauvinism in one sentence. Kudos. As if that wasn’t enough to score a colored paper certificate for greatest display of gender bias on TV, Guller upped the ante by giving a second employee named Grace — and young women all over this great nation — a credo they can live by: bigger boobs mean bigger paychecks.
I can see Oprah trying to steal this premise for a new show on OWN: “You get a set of boobs! You get a set of ta-tas! Everyone gets neeeeeewwwwww fun bags!”
What makes this even worse is the jubilance Grace shows when she’s given the chance to work towards a new pair of “boobies”: “If I had new boobs, this makes my job so much easier. Like, I don’t have to talk as much, because they do all the talking.”
Downplaying the importance of education in lieu of breast allure, how glorious! I could write 3,000 words about the disdain I have for this episode of Undercover Boss (I’m not a fan of the series anyway, with its propensity to exploit blue-collar workers for ratings). I’ll just let Twitter ventilate some hatred while I whisper to my imminent daughter that she doesn’t have to rely on chest flesh to validate her personal worth.
#undercoverboss Bikinis has worst boss ever, sexist & cheap CEO. Firing Jessica from deadend job was best for her. Boycott Bikinis!
— Stewart M. Green (@StewartMGreen) December 29, 2014
Wow @CBS you blew it on this episode of #Undercoverboss! The CEO is an insult to women. Fire the gal who has goals besides a bikini? #Fail!
— Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) December 29, 2014
Just watched #undercoverboss and I'm completely outraged with the CEO of Bikinis for firing Jessica. Dude is a total sexist pig! #Disgusted!
— Good (@That_Boy_Good_) December 29, 2014