{"id":1084,"date":"2011-10-17T14:57:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T18:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/changingchannels\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2011-10-17T14:59:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T18:59:13","slug":"downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Downsized&#8217; A Good Fit For TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reality TV has spawned plenty of garbage, but <em>WE&#8217;s Downsized<\/em> isn&#8217;t one such program.<\/p>\n<p>The program shows the real-life struggles of a decent hard-working family living near Phoenix, AZ.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Todd and Laura Bruce<\/strong> and their seven children lived well before the recession, when his construction business was raking in $1.5 million annually.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Downsized&#039; Family Fares Better; Still Struggling\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E4HxBeX-N2Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Being a good man, Bruce tried to keep his construction employees paid through some of the tougher times. The attempt backfires, however, as the recession lingered and clients&#8217; payments got delayed and work dried up faster than a puddle in the Arizona heat.<\/p>\n<p>That also put pressure on Bruce&#8217;s wife, Laura, to lead\u00a0 fitness classes and waitress along with doing her regular teaching job. Oh yes, and she&#8217;s also\u00a0 dealing with health issues along with helping to raise seven kids, including several teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>The kids are above average in that they care about each other and show love and respect for their parents. They make sacrifices, behave well and look out for each other.<\/p>\n<p>So perhaps the Bruce family is still &#8220;rich&#8221; after all, in some respects.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reality TV has spawned plenty of garbage, but WE&#8217;s Downsized isn&#8217;t one such program. The program shows the real-life struggles of a decent hard-working family living near Phoenix, AZ. Todd and Laura Bruce and their seven children lived well before the recession, when his construction business was raking in $1.5 million annually. Being a good&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,26,12,6,10,38,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-drama-2","category-news","category-opinion","category-reality","category-relationships","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Downsized&#039; A Good Fit For TV - Changing Channels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Downsized&#039; A Good Fit For TV - Changing Channels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reality TV has spawned plenty of garbage, but WE&#8217;s Downsized isn&#8217;t one such program. The program shows the real-life struggles of a decent hard-working family living near Phoenix, AZ. Todd and Laura Bruce and their seven children lived well before the recession, when his construction business was raking in $1.5 million annually. Being a good&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Changing Channels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-17T18:57:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-17T18:59:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mattaug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Downsized' A Good Fit For TV - Changing Channels","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Downsized' A Good Fit For TV - Changing Channels","og_description":"Reality TV has spawned plenty of garbage, but WE&#8217;s Downsized isn&#8217;t one such program. The program shows the real-life struggles of a decent hard-working family living near Phoenix, AZ. Todd and Laura Bruce and their seven children lived well before the recession, when his construction business was raking in $1.5 million annually. Being a good&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html","og_site_name":"Changing Channels","article_published_time":"2011-10-17T18:57:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-17T18:59:13+00:00","author":"mattaug","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html","name":"'Downsized' A Good Fit For TV - Changing Channels","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-17T18:57:31+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-17T18:59:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/#\/schema\/person\/53c63c3ad6201c97cca05aeac01f48c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/2011\/10\/downsized-a-good-fit-for-tv.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8216;Downsized&#8217; A Good Fit For TV"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/","name":"Changing Channels","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Matt Aug","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/changingchannels\/#\/schema\/person\/53c63c3ad6201c97cca05aeac01f48c5","name":"mattaug","description":"I have been in journalism for over to decades ... which makes me, well, old! 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