A game show where you win a job

In Argentina the unemployment rate is 23 percent. So a TV game show called Recursos Humanos, or Human Resources, gives its winners a job - a real one, "with a one-year contract with full benefits, a rare luxury in a country where more than half the labor market is off the books. The runner-up is given a free six-month medical plan for his or her family."

Unlike a real human-resources office, where the best-qualified candidate takes the job, the winner here is usually the one whose individual sob story - captured through interviews with friends and relatives - elicits the most tears.

Despite its noble aim, "Human Resources" remains a gameshow with all the bells and whistles one would expect. Unlike most job interviews in Argentina, where rejection comes quick and often, "Human Resources' " selection process is far more grueling. In addition to quizzes, contestants must reveal intimate details of their personal lives during confessional interviews ñ replayed with mawkish Muzak and "slo-mo" special effects.

Candidates must also undergo an one-day, unpaid trial run at the job, where hidden cameras capture the person's ability to handle difficult "real-life" situations, such as when a pushy client insists on paying with fake pesos.

The show's cruel format has drawn flack from several commentators. "It's unemployment as soap opera," says Buenos Aires-based sociologist, Silvina Walger. "The melodrama of these peoples' lives is so striking and tragic that you can't turn away."