“Undercover Boss,” the promising new reality show which premieres immediately after the Superbowl in February, isn’t paying any of the people on the show, The Post has learned.
The series, about high-ranking corporate execs who secretly take entry-level jobs in their own companies, is a CBS top priority.
But unlike reality shows like “Survivor” and “Biggest Loser,” the people who appear on the show don’t know they are going to be on a big-time network series — and signed away their rights after being told they were participating in a small documentary.
“It is a formatted documentary,” executive producer Stephen Lambert tells The Post — not a reality show, he insists.
“It is absolutely normal to make a documentary about people going about doing their work and not pay compensation.”
To maintain the authenticity of the program, producers came up with excuses for the presence of camera crews at work, he said.
“We [told] them we are making a television program about people trying entry-level jobs in their company,” Lambert says. “They just think it is going to air on television,” he says. “Sometimes we say CBS, sometimes we don’t — if people are interested. A lot of people are not that interested.” The 10-week series features execs from companies like Churchill Downs, Waste Management and White Castle working incognito among their low-level employees.
Over the weekend, CBS programming chief Nina Tassler told TV critics in Los Angeles, “We’re very high on [‘Undercover Boss’], and we think we’re going to launch another big-branded reality show.”