RIP, 'Knock Knock Live': The Pros and Cons of Fox's Quickly Canceled Show
"Knock Knock Live" vanished faster than the lions in Africa.
After just two episodes, the show has been canceled. The concept was great; they show up to unsuspecting people's homes, give them cash and prizes (and sometimes their neighbors get cash and prizes), all with a celebrity host, Ryan Seacrest, they never dreamed they'd meet. But the show was far from perfect. Here are some things I loved (and hated) about Fox's "Knock Knock Live."
In just two episodes, "Knock Knock" had me crying. I'm an intimidating, muscle-bound black man; I look so tough when I walk in a room... the plants curl up and die! But still, "Knock Knock" had me crying. David Beckham and Justin Bieber were in the two episodes; Bieber gave a sick girl and her family $50,000 and Beckham gave an even bigger and deserving struggling family $100,000. In both cases, you could feel and see the tears of joy streaming down their faces. In this economy, where so many are struggling to survive, there is no better gift you could give a hard-working family than cold hard cash. I loved it!
My other favorite part of the show was when they blew $25,000 out of a cannon and let the neighbors participate in the windfall of loot flying all over the place. "Knock Knock" gave them huge purse-like bags to stuff with as much cash as they could grab. What a wonderful gesture to include the neighbors in that.
The part of "Knock Knock Live" that I didn't care for was seeing the crew show up at a nice-looking house in a nice-looking neighborhood. The first thing that would pop in my head was, Why are they at that nice house and in a nice neighborhood? These people don't need any gifts or money, they should only go to low-income areas. When they went inside some of those houses it looked like the people living there were already ballin' and out of control. It looks so much better for the show, and is so much more well-deserved, when people who are struggling to make ends meet got knock knocked.
While "Knock Knock Live" had its pros and cons, I liked it more than I disliked it and was surprised to see it canceled so quickly. Perhaps income inequality is the blame. Maybe so many people are struggling to survive nowadays that anyone in that boat isn't interested in watching a bunch of people hit the lotto.
RIP, "Knock Knock Live."
Wendell Escott is a student at El Camino Community College and a contributor to Moviefone's Campus Beat. Are you a current college student with a love for all things movies and TV? Contribute to Campus Beat!