NO reality television program has played for such high stakes: three nervous candidates will be competing in front of a prime-time audience this week for a life-saving kidney operation, as the Big Brother format gives way to The Big Donor Show.
Video: TV show offers kidney as prize
The macabre contest will be broadcast in The Netherlands on Friday.
It is produced by Endemol, the maker of Big Brother, currently in its seventh season in Australia. But while the worst that can happen in Big Brother is public humiliation, the Big Donor rivals are battling for their lives.
Lisa, 37, a terminally ill cancer patient, has agreed to donate a healthy kidney. She was unhappy about anonymous donation and wanted to establish a connection to a deserving person with kidney disease: that way her family could feel that her death had helped to keep someone else alive.
But how, said Lisa, could she choose one life over another? How could she make the process less random?
The choice has been left to the television audience. A short film will be shown about each candidate depicting his or her life, family and friends.
The candidates will be interviewed and spell out their dreams for a fulfilled and successful life. In the manner of Big Brother, viewers will register their choice by text message.
The identity of the contestants has been kept secret to prevent any lobbying; all that is known is that they are Dutch and aged between 18 and 40.
Politicians across the party spectrum are enraged and flabbergasted. The issue is to be discussed this week in parliamentary question time, with pressure mounting on BNN, the private broadcaster, to drop the show. Joop Atsma, spokesman on media affairs for the conservative CDA party, said he wanted the whole thing dropped. “BNN won’t solve the question of organ donations with this show,” he said. “Has anyone asked how the two patients will feel who fail to win the kidney?”
The broadcaster, whose target audience is young people, has a reputation for provocative programs. Its track record includes showing an anchorman taking the drug LSD, a supposedly educational program on sex, entitled This is How You Screw, and a weight-loss competition Help! My Dog’s as Fat as Me.
There is thus more than a sliver of suspicion that it is exploiting illness to boost ratings.
The network, however, says that it merely wants to highlight the long waiting lists for donor organs. One of its leading entertainers died five years ago after failing to secure a transplanted kidney.
“The contestants in the show have a 33 per cent chance,” said Laurens Drillich, BNN chairman. “That’s a much larger chance than if they were on the organ waiting list. You would have thought that the chances of getting a donated organ had increased, but the opposite is the case. It has become like winning the lottery.”
Although some politicians are calling the show unethical, the main argument is that it violates good taste and is pushing the boundaries of acceptability.
By: scotavia - 2nd June 2007 at 09:45
Organ doning is good for your soul
Certainly not cruel or heartless. It is heartless when governments ignore the crisis which causes the cruel situation . We have the means to transform the lives of those who are waiting for transplants. A government with courage could change the system. It should be automatic that any suitable organs should be available unless the person was carrying an opt out of doning card.
In China organs are recovered from executed criminals, what a great way to bring good out of people who choose the wrong path.
And reality shows are good for exposing the bits of crappy behaviour which need to be dealt with not swept under the carpet.
By: steve rowell - 2nd June 2007 at 08:16
T’was all an elaborate hoax chaps….;)
Cruel and tasteless
By: Ren Frew - 1st June 2007 at 22:00
T’was all an elaborate hoax chaps….;)
By: Pete Truman - 31st May 2007 at 12:03
So did you watch the new Big Brother last night.
Apart from the totally obnoxious Davina, how she keeps employment in the industry is beyond me, we thought it was wierd how the TV presenters have put in a load of females, well, not sure that all of them actually are.
Sorry, but having had a contraversial cousin in there ourselves, we find it quite fascinating as an exercise in human relationships, though this is between people who should know the score by now, not a sick scenario involving a life saving experience, or is it?
By: scotavia - 30th May 2007 at 21:19
It is a publicity stunt,Which is not always a bad idea. Far too few people carry a multi organ doner card.It is reality because the people are real not acting. Sadly many people in this modern world hide from reality.Those who have to deal with the daily wait for a doner should benefit from the publicity which this programme generates. If you have problems with the reality of organ donor shortage do you also have a problem with the reality of starvation featured on fund raising films about places in North Africa where refugees are in desperate need.
Good can come from facing reality highlighted by these programmes, the last big Brother highlighted the truth about racism which many pretend has been dealt with.
By: tenthije - 30th May 2007 at 19:34
On behalf of the Dutch I would like to apologize for giving the world speedcameras and Endemol.
Someone should shoot the program developers at Endemol. Should bring in sufficient organs to save a lot of people.
By: dcfly - 30th May 2007 at 10:02
Has reality TV gone to far….?
In a word …..YES!!!😮
By: ATFS_Crash - 30th May 2007 at 06:49
I really dislike the shows that are being promoted as reality shows, because they are far from reality and morally bankrupt. Calling themselves reality shows is misrepresentation.
I suspect that this new show is disgraceful in that it might be insensitive to the people that really need organs. Of course I guess you could say that there’s another side to it that it promotes awareness and it might help encourage people to donate organs. I haven’t seen the show, it sounds despicable, but as far as I know it could be in good taste.
One of the first shows that they were promoting here was “survivor” by Charlie Parsons. I thought the premise was great, however they butchered the concept so bad that I couldn’t make through the show without hitting the channel button. I thought the show was going to be about actual survivor skills in a competitive manner, there was a little bit of that, however for the most part it was a popularity contest, game show and drama. How disappointing.
I prefer real reality shows, that are basically documentaries. Such as
Dirty jobs
Survivorman
MythBusters
Deadliest Catch
I Shouldn’t Be Alive
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May 30, 2007 at 4:26 am