PASADENA, Calif. -- CBS's "Undercover Boss" is the ultimate in false uplift reality shows. Call it "Extreme Makeover: Corporate Edition."

Premiering tonight on KDKA-TV after the Super Bowl (approximately 10 p.m.), this faux feel-good series sends corporate titans "undercover" to work the lowliest jobs in their companies.

In tonight's premiere, Waste Management Inc. president Larry O'Donnell III poses as a garbage man, works in a recycling facility and picks up trash around a landfill. Company employees are told he's a new employee being followed by a documentary film crew. Any camera crew present is liable to have an employee on his or her best behavior, so the notion that these bosses see normal behavior is immediately suspect.

When an employee invites Mr. O'Donnell, who is essentially a stranger she's just met, over for dinner after working together for one day, viewers will be excused if they scream, "Oh, come on!"

Mr. O'Donnell does seem to gain some insights into how his company runs and the impact of his decisions. The woman who trains him at the recycling facility jumps up during lunch and runs down a hallway to punch a time clock, much to Mr. O'Donnell's dismay. Turns out there was a miscommunication and at the end of the episode Mr. O'Donnell calls in a plant manager to set things right.

The end of the show creates the most eye-rolling as Mr. O'Donnell calls all the employees he's met into corporate headquarters where he reveals his true identity and rewards some with promotions, raises and appreciation for their hard work.

"I'm gonna be a different manager because now I have a whole new appreciation for the impact some of my decisions can have on you folks," Mr. O'Donnell tells his employees.

Although it seems like more than a few employees benefitted from Mr. O'Donnell's participation if it got company managers to re-think policies that did not allow bathroom breaks for trash collectors, the show seems largely designed to paint companies in a mostly positive light. Sure, they make a few mistakes but thanks to "Undercover Boss" everything will be rectified.

At a CBS press conference last month, "Boss" executive producer Stephen Lambert said companies are not paid and do not get a say in editing. But the show's producers and the companies have an understanding that this is a mutually beneficial endeavor that's not designed to make companies, including Hooters, 7-Eleven and White Castle in upcoming episodes, look bad. No one gets fired because of what's captured by the cameras.

"Some [companies] aren't interested in it," Mr. Lambert acknowledged. "But once we get into a serious dialogue with companies, they all can see that it's an attractive thing to do. It requires a little bit of sophistication. ... The boss has got to be willing to show a little bit of faults of the company as well as what's good about the company, and that takes a certain amount of courage."

Mr. Lambert said "Undercover Boss" is particularly keen to go behind the scenes at "consumer-facing companies" that are familiar to viewers. He described "Undercover Boss" as a "formatted documentary, where we create a situation and then follow what happens." He said the workplace is a natural setting for scripted TV shows and he was eager to use the workplace in an unscripted program.

"Anybody who has had a boss, who has worked in a company will understand this show," Mr. Lambert said. "This is a show where the boss is on a dual mission. One, he wants to find out what's really going on on the front line, things he can't see when he's back at headquarters. Second, he's looking for the unsung heroes of the company."

Mr. O'Donnell appears to have found a few of those in tonight's "Undercover Boss" premiere but the whole show feels overly constructed and less like a process of discovery for the boss and more like a journey to a predestined, warm and fuzzy company rally.

TV columnist Rob Owen's Tuned In+ is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.