The fictitious explanation given for the accompanying camera crew is that the executives are being filmed as part of a documentary about entry-level workers in a particular industry, or a competition with another individual with the winner getting a job with the company.

They are exposed to a series of predicaments with amusing results, and invariably spend time getting to know the people who work in the company, learning about their professional and personal challenges.

At the end of their time undercover, the executives return to their true identity and request the employees they worked with individually to travel to a central location—often corporate headquarters.

The Austrian version of Undercover Boss premiered on ORF eins on 16 January 2013 with the CEO of ASFiNAG, Klaus Schierhackl.

The Czech version of Undercover Boss, named Utajený šéf, premiered on TV Nova on 25 April 2018.

The Hungarian version of Undercover Boss, named Főnök inkognitóban, premiered on RTL Klub on 29 April 2019.

The Spanish version of Undercover Boss premiered on 11 June 2011 on Antena 3 named El jefe, but it was cancelled after 3 episodes due to low viewership ratings.

Three years later, Atresmedia adapted the programme, this time on the channel laSexta, where it premiered on 3 April 2014 under the title El jefe infiltrado.

[9] The first episode of the US series, also produced by Studio Lambert, premiered on 7 February 2010 after Super Bowl XLIV and featured Larry O'Donnell, then-President and Chief Operating Officer of Waste Management, Inc.[10] On 9 March 2010, CBS announced it had commissioned Undercover Boss for a second season.

[11][12] On 28 July, CBS announced four company executives from NASCAR, DirecTV, Chiquita Brands International, and Great Wolf Lodge, Inc. had signed up for the second season of Undercover Boss.

[22] Undercover Boss has been criticised as a reality show for presenting scenarios and situations which rarely happen to employees in real workplaces and are in fact dramatic tricks.

[23] Others point out that CEOs in real-life workplaces do not typically go out of their way to provide gifts and other extra benefits to front-line employees at the expense of the bottom line.

It's a shameless endorsement of capitalist inequality that may as well end each episode by reminding everyday Americans that they should shut up and be grateful their lives are controlled by such selfless exemplars of virtue.

In addition, international versions have been aired in the United States on TLC and Oprah Winfrey Network, under the umbrella title Undercover Boss Abroad.