Channel Seven dumps its cashed-up take on ‘poverty porn’

CHANNEL Seven won’t be cashing in on the controversy of struggling punters being given a serious wad of cash, dumping reality show The Day the Cash Came.

CHANNEL Seven won’t be cashing in on the controversy of giving struggling punters a serious wad of cash.

The network has dumped plans for an Australian take on UK reality show The Day the Cash Came.

Seven confirmed it has dropped the show, which in the UK gave families on the poverty line a year’s salary to see how they spend it, less than a week ahead of Channel Nine’s launch of similar and already controversial cash-based ‘social experiment’ reality format The Briefcase.

The Briefcase is based on a USformat, which gives two families $100,000 and then tests them to see if they will keep it or give it away to the other family after learning details of their financial situation.

The show has already come under fire by reviewers and critics as poverty porn before an Australian episode has even aired.

But the network, and participants in the first episode dispute that.

Rob and Mandy McCracken penned their own column to hit back at critics, saying they had not been exploited and that, even though they were initially unaware of the format of the show when they signed on, they were given every opportunity to withdraw from the process once they found out it was not a documentary series.

The Day the Cash Came was one of a slew of shows announced by Channel Seven as part of its 2016 slate preview late last year.

A Seven spokesman told TV Tonight the network has already premiered successful reality shows this year ahead of putting The Day the Cash Came on ice.

“We have launched a number of successful new franchises — including Seven Year Switch and First Dates,” the spokesman said.

“We also have a large slate of new projects in development and production focusing on our schedules following the Olympic Games and into 2017, and based on these projects, we have made the decision not to proceed with The Day The Cash Came at this point.”

The Day the Cash Came was picked up by Seven from Red Arrow International, the same group that sold the network reality dating show Kiss Bang Love — which has failed to attract viewers.

This week Kiss Bang Love ratings continued to spiral down — dropping to 194,000 viewers in five cities, well down on its debut when the show attracted 513,000 viewers.

The Briefcase launches on Monday night.