I don’t often watch this show (UK version) because I’m not usually at home when it’s on. I usually don’t even try to watch any of the non-UK variants. The 
American one in particular is smothered in saccharin and seems completely out of touch with reality (they cover horse racing stadiums and other minority concerns, though perhaps in the US people like that).
But I have a day off today (until tonight, anyway), and I was flipping channels and caught the start of this episode of Undercover Boss Canada. Mary Brown’s is a fried chicken chain based exclusively (as you’d expect, though they appear to be expanding) in Canada.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the programme structure involves an executive – usually the CEO – going undercover at various branches of the business in question to see what problems exist at the sharp end. In the UK version (where the format was developed), there are usually fundamental problems with the business (e.g. fast food outlets with appalling hygiene issues), but the franchised overseas versions tend not to cover such problems (again, the US version could often have been lifted straight out of Dallas or any other TV soap).
At the end of each episode, the CEO calls all the people featured up to head office and hands out various tokens. It might be an upgrade of facilities at the branch they work at, or a promotion or pay rise. In the UK version, it might be a paid weekend break for someone. The overseas versions tend to award much higher-value gifts to employees – full-length holidays, paid-off debts, and so on.
But the CEO in this case – Greg Roberts – topped anything I have ever seen (even in the US version).
He came across as a decent and pretty normal guy right from the start. During the show he travelled to various outlets and worked with some of the people. As usual, the people had various personal issues to deal with. There was a woman who didn’t get to see her father often, a deaf guy working in a real backwoods branch, and a woman who’d got other family problems.
But when he called them into the office, he arranged it so the woman who didn’t see her father often would get a twice-yearly paid trip to visit him. He paid for the schooling of the kids of another worker. Another woman was given an all-expenses holiday to “anywhere in the world” and assurance that her retirement finances would be sorted. And the deaf guy, who was due to get married, was given a house! Mr Roberts was clearly moved by the stories he’d heard, and even more moved when he handed out these gifts.
The trailer for it is on YouTube. I’m sure you can find it online if you want to watch it.
I know one thing. If they expand to Britain, I’ll go there for food just on principle.