“The Job,” a new reality-competition series that debuts tonight on CBS, attempts to take a serious part of life that everyone has been through–the job interview–and turn it into compelling television.

Of course, with unemployment still high, and reports of layoffs at large companies nearly every week, it is not a subject to take lightly.

“All of us have been in competition for a job at some stage of our lives, and we have just taken that real competition that people are in, and present that opportunity to candidates who would not otherwise get the opportunity,” the show’s executive producer Michael Davies tells me. “We were very responsible, and we are very aware of how serious this is, and how much it meant to our candidates.”

Each week the show features a different business; for the first episode it is The Palm steakhouse, and for the second (as we reported a few weeks ago) Cosmopolitan magazine is the featured company. During the show, which is hosted by Lisa Ling, five candidates engage in a variety of tasks under the watchful eye of executives from the featured company, from field training to a quiz show-esque grilling. The grand prize is not a fake job with a big salary, but a real, normal, middle-class gig. At The Palm it is an assistant manager job, at Cosmo it is an editorial assistant position.

Davies says that of the 40 contestants that appeared on the program, 16 landed jobs.

“These applicants had no intention of becoming reality stars, their only objective was to try and secure their dream job,” Ling tells me. “They were all incredibly qualified, and in fact vetted by the various companies HR departments as well. These were all very qualified people, who have been working toward pursuing a job at this company or in the industry being featured.”

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— DIANE CLEHANE

We’re still exhausted from hob nobbing with last week’s overflow of A-listers, so we were almost glad things were a bit more subdued at 55th & Fifth today. It gave us a chance to catch up and chat with some our favorite regulars. Imagine my chagrin when I stopped by Matt Blank‘s table and Showtime’s CEO told me had I switched my weekly reservation to tomorrow, I’d be chatting with some of the biggest stars of his network. On Thursday, Matt and entertainment president Bob Greenblatt are hosting their own “British invasion” at table one when the entire glorious cast of The Tudors — the dreamy Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Peter O’Toole and Natalie Dormer will be breaking bread with the network’s other stars — including Tracy Ullman, whose show State of the Union, will premiere March 30, the same night as the new season of The Tudors. Thank God, something to watch! (I’ve been completely depressed over the fast approaching season finale of HBO’s In Treatment…) Also in attendance, says Matt, will be Billie Piper, who stars in — and we’re not kidding — the upcoming Secret Diaries of a Call Girl, which will premiere in June. Talk about timely. Perhaps the newly unemployed Eliot Spitzer can make a cameo appearance.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Gerry Imber, Jerry Della Femina and the gang with Fox News’ Monica Crowley.

2. Showtime’s chairman and CEO Matt Blank with über producer Michael Davies.

3. “Mayor” Joe Armstrong and Glamoureditrix Cindi Leive (Glad you hear you’re a loyal “Lunch” reader!). The Mayor was celebrating with his friend Cindi over a glass of red wine — and a few asparagus spears — about her big news. Minutes before lunch, Cindi found out Glamour is a finalist for the fourth year in a row for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. No woman’s magazine has ever been so honored! The worthy competitors: Time, People, National Geographic and Martha Stewart Living. Congrats! Before Cindi and Joe tucked into their lunch, we unanimously decided New York‘s Spitzer cover this week is one for the ages. Brilliant!

4. Norman Pearlstine and a young gent no one seemed to know …

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