Could A Second Season Of Undercover Boss Really Work?

With CBS’ new reality series Undercover Boss averaging 18.74 million viewers in its first season, it’s no surprise that CBS has decided to pick the show up for a second season. The question is, how long can a show like this go on?

Undercover Boss features a different high-level chief executive in each episode as they go undercover as a low-level employee of their company to get a better idea of what the little-guy is going through in a day’s work. After exploring the world of minimum wage and the stresses that come with their job environment, we get to see the boss-man take what they learned from their experience back up to the top.

CBS announced today that they’re giving the show a second season.

"We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to the series and how audiences seem to connect to it on several levels," said Jennifer Bresnan, Senior Vice President, CBS Alternative Programming. "The wish fulfillment of seeing the top boss perform jobs of the rank and file is universal, and the employees' stories discovered at each company are often relatable and inspirational."

Here’s what I’m wondering, though. With a show like this, that relies in large part on the boss’ ability to slip into their low-level job, while surrounded by cameras (and usually under the guise of being part of a documentary or reality show on the job being demonstrated), how long can CBS get away with sending bosses into average-man jobs without people starting to wonder if they’re being punk’d (to an extent)? It seems CBS feels they can still capture at least some authenticity in a second season or at the very least, hopes that the people featured in future episodes aren’t among the millions of viewers that watch the show. All the same, they might consider getting sneaky with hidden cameras and microphones or else we might be seeing episodes wherein the people working with the undercover boss are just pretending they don't know what's really going on.