By: Chloe Wilhelm
The biggest crisis of my generation is now a game show. Paid Off, a new reality TV show on TruTV, offers contestants the reward of a lifetime – but instead of expensive cars or cash prizes, the award is much different: a future free of student debt.
Created and hosted by actor and comedian Michael Torpey, the trivia-based game show began last month as a cynical and satirical answer to America’s growing student loan problem.
In each episode, three college graduates compete for the chance to eliminate the entirety of their student loan debt. After introducing themselves by name, alma mater, and their loan balance, they compete to get to the final round, where a percentage of their debt is eliminated for each correct answer.
While the show seems like an odd solution, it represents the increasing problem of student loan debt in the United States.
Collectively, 45 million Americans owe a total of $1.5 trillion dollars in student loans. This is more than credit card debt and auto loans combined. The average student now graduates with more than $37,000 in debt.
Because of this growing financial burden, many graduates desperately want to find any solution they can. The show’s host mentioned this in the first episode.
“Welcome to Paid Off, the game show that helps pay off your student debt so you can stop hoping to get hit by a well-insured bus,” Torpey joked.
Paid Off seems like a show set in a dystopian future, where people have lost hope in being able to pay off the cost of having the education necessary to succeed in today’s world. It is a show that shouldn’t exist. People shouldn’t have to view a TV show as the only way to pay off their loans.
Despite this, it is a show that has already changed lives. One college graduate with $41,000 in debt walked away with $28,000, while another contestant was able to pay off the entirety of his $42,000 loan amount.
After seeing these results, it is understandable that people will try desperately to become a contestant. The most frequent search Google relating to the show is how to apply.
Paid Off is a show that shouldn’t exist, but it will continue to: earlier this month, the game show was greenlit for an additional 16 episodes.
While the show is likely to continue past this number of episodes, the show’s host Michael Torpey recognizes that this isn’t a realistic long-term solution for student loan debt. At the end of each episode, he encourages viewers to speak out about the issue.
“There are 45 million Americans out there struggling with their student loans. It doesn’t have to be this way,” he says in the closing sequence. “Call your representatives right now and tell them we need a better solution than this game show.”
He’s right. We do.
Paid Off airs on Tuesdays at 10/9 p.m. on TruTV. For information on how to apply as a contestant, visit www.trutv.com/shows/paid-off-with-michael-torpey/.
