Not exactly this, but two decades ago they used to air a show on discovery channel you might enjoy : "It takes a thief",

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc7mVBABUGE5IITXKHvnX...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Hustle I remember this, this was good, lots of social engineering before I knew what it was called.

At a previous job I worked with a really good contract pen-tester.

He would literally just walk into facilities and ask people to give them their passwords and they would give them.

The people working would also help him open wiring cabinets so he could do whatever he wanted.

You aren’t wrong.

I called a vendor once, wanting a server setting tweaked. I asked for the present state and when it came back completely different to what I was expecting I backtracked.

I’d queued changed on a competitors live environment. I don’t think you need an elaborate charade, just blaze in with confidence.

Or walk past the boss's PA's desk, note if s/he has a photo of a cat/dog/boyfriend/girlfriend, ask someone the name of that companion and boom, there's your password.

Jenny Radcliffe's The People Hacker is a similar book, with an adaptation in the works. https://deadline.com/2023/04/people-hacker-jenny-radcliffe-s...

There's a show that plays on my Samsung's TV channels that has a camera crew that follows a bunch of car repo guys in a tow truck. My suspicion is that it's scripted and fake (from the times I have flipped past it), but you could still get your secret agent / red team / repo dude jones on if you kinda squinted at it.

Unless you cut it like Ocean's 11, it would probably get cancelled for being too boring to the general public.

Nah just do what all the other "reality" shows do: find real people willing to portray caricatures of themselves and put them in completely made up but plausible sounding situations then encourage them to go full drama queen... As they say at the beginning of Made in Chelsea: "some" situations "may" have been staged for your entertainment...