At the MIP fair in Cannes last week Dutch TV producer Endemol presented a TV format that pits co-workers against each other as they get to vote one another off a company’s payroll. This is about real companies, not just ones made up for the show, and real people with real jobs that feed children. The working title is Someone’s Gotta Go says Worldscreen.com, which adds that the producer has already sold the format to broadcaster Fox in the USA.

In Algemeen Dagblad (Dutch) Endemol’s Paul Römer explains that the programme will follow a mid-sized company that has been hit hard by the economic crisis. People will have to be fired there.

“We start by showing everybody’s salaries. After that we show which employees are valuable to the company. And who’s shirking their responsibilities. Who deserves a raise? Who deserves lower wages? And ultimately the employees must answer the question: who must be fired?”

Römer expects the show would also work in the Netherlands. His lawyers are undoubtedly busy trying to find out how to not run afoul of the Dutch worker protection laws.

Endemol is the firm of John de Mol, brother of Linda and father of Johnny, and is responsible for introducing the world to such upstanding TV programmes as Big Brother and Give the Whore a Chance. No, wait, I forgot, that last one was a parody by Mugmetdegoudentand. No, wait again, three years after the parody was broadcast, and the underlying concept widely rejected as too unrealistic, John de Mol did indeed make a reality show with prostitutes. Because that’s the kind of classy guy he is.

Illustration by Wikimedia user Stannerd, used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.