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Some people will do anything for ratings....and for a pass to the U.S.

LOS ANGELES: Some TV shows offer an extreme makeover, others a bid for pop stardom. But the hottest reality show in the US Hispanic market is offering the ultimate prize - a potential green card to immigrants desperate to pursue the American dream.

Gana la Verde (Win the Green) has attracted big audiences and hundreds of contestants willing to eat burritos crammed with live worms, jump off high-speed trucks or wash sky-scraper windows in exchange for a year's legal help in speeding up their visa or green card cases.

The show, run five times a week on small Spanish-language television channels in Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston and Dallas, was the brainchild of Lenard Liberman, executive vice president of the independent TV and radio company Liberman Broadcasting.

"When you are in the Hispanic market, you realize that immigration and legal status is the number one issue... They want to be able to earn a living and not have the pressure of wondering if they are able to stay or not," Liberman said on Thursday.

"We could do a show and give the winner a cash prize, or a toaster oven. But I thought, what would be the ultimate prize for someone living in the United States as an immigrant? ... To have a prestigious law firm handle their case would be something invaluable," he said.

The show started running on July 1 and Liberman said it had been consistently No 2 in prime-time Los Angeles Spanish language stations.

"The response has been outstanding. We have a waiting list. We get letters in the mail, hundreds if not thousands of phone calls, and had people flying in from places like Chicago who want to be in the show," he said.

An estimated 2 million immigrants, most of them Latino, live and work in California and millions more are trying to extend or alter their visas to remain in the country legally.

"It is a sad commentary... You can't really blame the programme makers," said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition which campaigns for positive Hispanic representation in the US media.

"But how humiliating it is, and how desperate do people have to be, to get something that is so necessary to your life and to the future of your children. It is heart-wrenching," he said.

Hmm, ok, so the challenges they face on that game show are nothing compared to the challenges many face in REAL LIFE on a DAILY basis as they attempt to enter the U.S. So yeah, of course you are going to have thousands want to be on that show, that competition is peanuts compared to spending 20 hours locked in the back of a tractor trailer with a hundred other people in a extreme heat, no water, no room to breathe, and the fear of getting caught by la chota- now there's a real fear factor for you.

This show is a sad thing to see, a new low for tv.

CJ at 8/09/2004

Comments:

By CJ, at: 5:59 PM

You are right, it is bad. I'm sure some may say I'm overreacting to this, but this isn't someone giving away a cruise or a car. The prize is something many would do anything for, and it's terrible to play off people's emotions for ratings.