I confess I followed the first series of Big Brother with the same morbid fascination as everyone else, but I found that the novelty wore off very quickly. While it was an interesting social experiment, we now have to deal with the consequences, i.e. that every other programme on our television screens is some variation on the same lazy, lowest common denominator, voyeuristic, worthless tosh.

So now to this dubious genre now comes apparently the first made-for-internet reality show, which promises to pay off all your debts in exchange for permission to film your life 24 hours a days for six months. The production company is currently looking for eager volunteers willing to submit themselves to the mercy of the cameras, tempted by the bribe of a (at least temporarily) debt-free existence.

Now this whole idea seems wrong in so many ways. Firstly, do we really need another reality show, regardless of whether it appears on mainstream television or not? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I would strongly argue not.

Firstly, the promise to pay off someone’s debts seems more than a little cynical for all those people in a financially desperate situation who would love the opportunity for an escape but will obviously not win. By dangling this carrot in front of the many thousands who will almost certainly apply is nothing short of cruelty.

If you apply for one of those reality programmes where the end goal is simply pseudo-celebrity (or renewed celebrity in the case of I’m A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!) my view is that you deserve to be humiliated. I expect that many of the people that do apply fit into this area. Debt Monkey has actively said they don’t care if you ran up your debt becasue of cosmetic surgery or a gambling problem. They will pay it off as long as you become the monkey. Some of these people deserve to be humiliated, and I don’t care.

But with Debt Monkey many normal people who are genuinely in debt might apply because they feel they have nothing to lose. And dragging people like this into the false hope of winning this sad little competition in the name of entertainment, and let’s face it, pretty low-brow entertainment, is just plain wrong.

And for the ‘lucky’ monkey who wins actually the chance to be the subject of this tawdry show, signing on the dotted line must surely be a modern Faustian pact. Once the production company has shelled out a significant proportion of their budget on someone else’s debt, they’re going to want their pound of flesh.

If there’s any lesson to be learned from all the other reality shows that have crawled out of hell and onto our screens, it’s that you can’t just point a camera at someone and hope to get good telly (or YouTube). You either have to go out of your way to choose unbalanced freaks (Big Brother - are you listening?) or you have to artificially manipulate your subjects to create the kind of car crash television these companies seem to want to create.

So I for one won’t be watching Debt Monkey. But don’t let me stop you uploading a desperate “choose me” video to the show’s website.

At least since it’s only on the internet, it should be easier to ignore.