So this epic apartment search weekend last weekend: I saw 12 different apartments and found only one I liked, but that landlord did not call me back. I grew miserable. Maybe I should just hire a flipping broker, I thought.I called a real estate agent. But she told me that she didn't work as a broker, but that if I wanted a broker, perhaps I'd be interested in appearing on a reality TV show? They were casting, she said, and they acted just like a broker, but for free. She had already told them about me, she said, and they wanted to have me on the show.
The show is "For Rent" and is about people searching for apartments. Show employees act like free brokers for you, setting up as many apartments as you want to view. And you are on TV doing this. Then, when they find you an apartment, a "team of experts" led by a "TV personality and real estate expert" do a budget makeover of your new apartment.
I called the show. They wanted me to drive up for a screen test.
I told a lot of people about this, thinking they would laugh, har har! But as a rule, they all got all excited about how "lucky" I was to be able to be on this show. Even the academic I know who has published on how reality TV insidiously promotes the "fun" of people working for free (the people on the show don't get paid) and of living under video surveillance--even she was like, "Man, you have got to go on the show!"
All except my Mom. She did not think it was a good idea.
5 comments:
That actually does sound like a pretty good deal
Yeah, but you're on TV. No good comes of being on TV. They asked me to fill out a form explaining "which TV character you are most like, and why." No good will come of that.
But you'd get to be on the telly! It's the American dream!
So the deal is that you don't have to do crazy stunts or dance or find "true love" or eat something gross or live in your new apartment with 7 strangers and you still get free stuff and a new apartment? Hmmmm...as long as they don't insist on decorating your new apartment in a "history theme" (you know how they find out something you like on those shows and the decorate in that theme sometimes?)--you should go for it.
I need to know the name of the prof who writes about people working for free on these reality tv shows. That would fit perfectly in my chapter on culture.
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