Cancel this show, please
So you're a clerk in a clothing store and you show up one morning and there's a kooky new employee. Like a spoiled child, she won't stop sniffing the merchandise, toying with the zippers, and loudly slurping her juice. She's a nut, for sure, but not a fun nut so much as a tight nut who just might crack wide open in front of the customers. The day unfolds strangely, and you and your co-workers raise your eyebrows whenever she turns her back.
Guess what, dude: You've been punked. Or, if you prefer: Smile, you're on candid camera. ''Fire Me . . . Please" is yet another hidden-camera show, this time built for those who particularly enjoy watching pranks set in the workplace. Just as MTV's ''Punk'd" has specialized in fooling celebrities, ''Fire Me . . . Please" corners the niche on blindsiding the cafe and boutique workers of America. The show, which premieres tonight at 9 on Channel 4, puts fake employees in real jobs, has them annoy their co-workers, and films the results for our viewing pleasure.
''Fire Me" is also a reality contest, as the fake employees compete to see who can get fired the closest to 3 p.m. So while one guy is raising a ruckus at a coffee shop, our clothes-sniffing friend is working her magic across town. Minutes before the clock strikes 3, each of them becomes more aggressively obnoxious, hoping to be axed exactly on the hour. The winner takes home $25,000, presented to them by Dave Holmes, who hosts with exaggerated suspense from a ''mobile command center."
What is there to say? ''Fire Me" is not just more of TV's video inanity set to a laugh track. It's redundant video inanity, as it performs the same sting operation over and over again. And each time we see it, the same results ensue, as dumbfounded co-workers make amusing faces in reaction to the wacky newbie. If the makers of this thin summer show were in a reality contest to be fired closest to 9 p.m., they'd probably win.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
'Beat the Press' wins Rowse Award
WGBH-TV's (Channel 2) ''Beat the Press" program was honored with the National Press Club's 2005 Arthur Rowse Award for press criticism, the station announced yesterday.
The award, which recognizes excellence in examining the role and work of the news media, was given to both Emily Rooney, the program's host and executive editor, and John Carroll, the show's executive producer. ''Beat the Press," which airs Friday nights, received the same award last year. The award is sponsored by Rowse, a former reporter for US News & World Report.
SUZANNE RYAN
Globe on NECN
Here's what's happening on ''Around the Globe" today on NECN:
9:30 a.m.: ''Talk of New England"
12:30 p.m.: ''Globe at Home" -- Maureen Goggin of the Globe and Bob Murphy, Boston Market Manager for Angie's List, on getting your home ready to sell.
5 p.m.: ''Around the Globe"
6:30 p.m.: ''New England Business Day"
8:30 p.m.: ''NewsNight"
Schedule is subject to change.
Radio highlights
9 a.m. WCRB-FM (102.5) -- Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12; Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien; Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.
Noon WUMB-FM (91.9) -- ''Live at Noon." Guest: John Shain, singer-songwriter and blues guitarist. 