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Undercover Boss is a television franchise series that has been released in multiple countries. It is originally based on the 2009 British Channel 4 series of the same name.[1]
The show’s format is based on a senior executive of a company working undercover in their own firm to investigate how the company really works and identify how it can be improve and rewarding the hard working staff.
Each episode features a high-ranking executive or the owner of a corporation going undercover as an entry-level employee in their own company. The executive alters their appearance and assumes an alias and fictional backstory. The fictitious explanation for the accompanying camera crew is that the executive is being filmed as part of a documentary about entry-level workers in a particular industry. They spend approximately one week undercover, working in various areas of the company's operations, with a different job and in most cases a different location each day. He is exposed to a series of predicaments with amusing results. He invariably spends time getting to know the people who work in the company, learning about their professional and personal challenges.
At the end of his week undercover, the boss resumes his true identity and summons the employees he worked with individually to corporate headquarters. The boss reveals their identity and rewards hardworking employees through promotions or financial rewards. Other employees are given training or better working conditions.
The original UK series started airing in 2009 on Channel 4 and returned for a second season in July 2010, featuring the bosses of Best Western, Jockey Club, and Harry Ramsden's amongst others.[2]
The first episode premiered on 7 February 2010 after Super Bowl XLIV and featured Larry O'Donnell, President and Chief Operating Officer of Waste Management, Inc.[3]
On 9 March 2010, Undercover Boss was renewed for a second season.[4]
CBS's premiere of Undercover Boss on 7 February 2010, immediately following the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV, delivered 38.6 million viewers—the largest audience ever for a new series following the Super Bowl since the advent of people meters in 1987, the largest audience ever to watch the premiere episode of a reality series, the most watched new series premiere overall on television since Dolly on 27 September 1987 (39.47 million), and the third largest post-Super Bowl audience behind Friends Special on 28 January 1996 and Survivor: The Australian Outback on 28 January 2001.[5]
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