Anger grows over The Activist, the ‘worst idea ever’ for a reality television show

A new star-studded reality TV competition that’s meant to drive real-life positive outcomes has been panned as being “truly horrific”.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas, an actress and model, is one of the celebrity judges on The Activist.

Looking at the promotional blurb for the newest reality television show format, you can kind of see what its creators were trying to achieve.

But The Activist, a new competition pitting social change warriors against each other, judged by an R&B singer and two actors, has not been well-received.

Similar in style to The Apprentice, six activists from around the world will compete in a series of challenges and events to create the most social media buzz, and the overall winner will attend the G20 summit in Rome to meet with world leaders.

Rather than winning any cash for their causes, which are meant to bring “meaningful change” to an issue in the education, environment or health space, competitors get ‘awareness’.

Their success is judged by social media engagement and the verdicts of celebrity hosts Usher, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Julianne Hough.

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Priyanka Chopra Jonas stars in a new reality show that pits activists promoting charitable causes against each other and uses social media as one metric of their success. Picture: AFP

R&B singer Usher is one of the celebrity judges.

Julianne Hough, an actor, will also front The Activist. Picture: AFP

“This is truly horrific,” activist and writer Stephanie Yeboah said on Twitter.

“A reality competition show on who can be the next Insta-activist? It’s performative at best and kinda makes light of the hard work a lot of grassroots organisations do on the ground, on a daily basis. Gross.”

Yuen Chan, a journalist in Hong Kong, was equally scathing, pointing out that the “grotesque” CBS show, to air over five weeks, comes at a time when “activists are jailed, maimed and killed around the world”.

Activist Joey Ayoub said the “obscene” concept made perfect sense in a “disconnected, elite world where activists are nothing more than entrepreneurs-to-be”.

The 1st contestant of #TheActivist show is... a CEO.

One of the awards this show offers is a chance to speak to world leaders at G20... but the 1st contestant already got to testify to congress just 2 days ago. This show is to pat the backs of elites, not uplift true activism. https://t.co/w2U9nqc61dpic.twitter.com/cfpLLOymP5

— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) (@VPS_Reports) September 11, 2021

I really really really thought this America's Got Activism show all y'all have been tweeting about was satire. I really can't take this level of embarrassment by proxy #TheActivist

— Sofia Jawed-Wessel, PhD (@SexProfSofia) September 11, 2021

If your activism is designed for maximum sharing and does not offend anyone powerful, you are doing something wrong. #TheActivist

— dave karpf (@davekarpf) September 9, 2021

Andy Wilson from the environment not-for-profit BleedingCool said online popularity did not guarantee any real change.

“This is the same silly notion that if somehow we only get enough signatures on a Change.org petition that something will happen,” Wilson wrote. “Newsflash: that’s not how the world works.”

Reviewers were just as unimpressed as those at the forefront of activism and social change.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “the very idea of blending reality TV capitalism, serious global issues and shilling for retweets into some sort of competitive woke-off is striking many as a rather dubious concept”.

Forbes described the show as “performance activism personified” and asked: “If you’re going into activism for fame and popularity, then is it really activism?”

And an opinion piece in The Guardian summed it up best by declaring: “You can’t tweet and TikTok your way to a better world, you’ve got to put in the work. That takes grassroot organising; it takes the sort of work that doesn’t immediately make for a great reality TV show.”

Reality shows with good intentions that are horribly executed are nothing new.

Whether it’s a search for love set amid a backdrop of betrayal and backstabbing or confidence-lacking individuals given a ‘pep in their step’ via extreme plastic surgery procedures, the genre is littered with a whole host of bad ideas.

Global Citizen, the social change group that’s producing The Activist, defended the idea.

“This is not a reality show to trivialise activism,” it said in a statement.

“On the contrary, our aim is to support activists everywhere, show the ingenuity and dedication they put into their work, and amplify their causes to an even wider audience.”