The Reality is – I’m not dying!
It was decried as the show that would break the reality TV format’s back. The makers of the Dutch De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) promised a one-off programme in which a terminally ill woman would chose which of three contestants would receive her kidneys when she died.
But last night the show, which sparked worldwide controversy, was revealed to be a hoax staged by Endemol Netherlands and the public broadcaster BNN to raise awareness about organ donation in the Netherlands.
The hoax was announced at the end of last night’s show, which showed the “donor”, identified only as Lisa, 37, “selecting” the recipient of her kidney based on their history, profile and conversations with their families and friends.
Lisa, 37, was revealed as an actor by the programme makers, but the three patients involved were genuine cases who were fully aware of the stunt and supported the programme’s aims.
We all were fooled as thoroughly as everyone else. The first 13 comments – down below – are those made by readers of the original post about the planned program.
That’s just wrong.
this is just a sicker version of abc’s extreme home makeover, total exploitation to sell advertising under the guise of helping people out
one person get huge help and all the other applicants who didn’t get on the show get their hopes crushed
#2 Geesh, I thought people had no hope whatsoever on that kind of pograms anyway.
I am from the Netherlands and stopped watching television about two and a half years ago. These kind of programs are the reason why. I now select my own viewing pleasure on the internet. This sick sort entertainment is not one of my choices.
Seems to me that reality shows involving the terminally ill would be the PERFECT evolution of American TV. After all, they’re gonna die soon, so the network doesn’t have to pay them anything! Network shareholders will be escstatic: spend hardly anything, rake in the billion$, and boost those stock prices.
Shows like “Treadmill to Bucks” (from Stephen King’s short story “The Running Man”) are closer than you think.
When I heard about the show this morning, I thought the only way they could go lower would to have one of the contestants be Hannibal Lecter who only wanted to eat the kidney.
Is your life worth saving?
Next thing they will be filming car accidents live, oh yeah, they already do, its called the local evening news.
Wake up America!
….with fava beans and a nice KEY-AN-TEE.
Yes, it is tasteless.
Still, I can see why they do it. The average time on the waiting list for a donor kidney is 4 years in the Netherlands. And the average donor doesn’t have anything to say about what will be done with his or her organs after death.
I refuse to register as a organ donor for exactly this reason. I wouldn’t donate my lungs to lifelong smoker, or my liver to chronic alcoholic, if I had the choice. Yet, that choice isn’t mine.
So yes, let’s get all those dilemmas out in the open, for once. Let’s discuss the decisions that are made dailily, why certain patients are favoured over other to be helped by donors.
Spread the hate Eideard….when will it show up on Fox, ABC, CBS or NBC!!
None of them have a lock on tastlessness.
I had a nice Hammond B3 that I donated…
Patty’s Fort celebrated colonic irrigation, with the scatological remains shown in full on screen.
I wonder when these will show up on Fox TV.
I thought the scatological remains were the normal Fox offerings already.
#9, C’mon joshua. Take a pill and relax. Fox is by far the worse when it comes to TV shows. Or did you happen to forget the immortal To Marry a Millionaire. Of course, Fox’s O’Reilly show is pretty close to the same standard. I hate watching sports on Fox, the announcers treat everyone like they are both 6 yrs old and privy to the latest locker room gossip at the same time.
A reality show like this would be what I expect from Fox, not the other networks.
What is the greatest wrong?
1) She is dying?
2) She is giving away her organs when she dies?
3) She is choosing who receives them?
4) It is being televised?
Hint-> #1
Even when one side of me sees this as a low, I also see the positive sides of this program. It really gives some attention of organ donors and it creates attention to the fact that there is a shortage. So I would not be surprised to see more people sign up to become organ donors because of this show. If that would be case, I think this show could become a good thing.
But in the end it all depends on how they put the show together.
Lol! You all got burned!
Eideard….I can’t find the original post. My sentance to you to spread the hate, sounds a bit harsh, and I don’t think I meant it as **YOU** spreading hate…..thats never been you in all the time I’ve been coming here.
But I can’t remember the context of the comment.
Now that the show has *outed* itself as a hoax to raise awareness of the donor problem, let me say that I read in 2 British papers last night that the real reason was because the channel that did this is going belly up due to lack of audience share. And that they have done some really over the line stuff in the past. They generated a lot of buzz and a huge audience, translating into big bucks for them. I hope it did raise awareness, but I think even more now than before that the whole thing is very, very tasteless.
And Fusion……the Sun is very hot.
let me say that I read in 2 British papers last night that the real reason was because the channel that did this is going belly up due to lack of audience share.
Bull. BNN is a public broadcaster, on one of the three public Dutch channels. Not a separate channel, not in danger of losing its license, even though it could use some more paying members.
Let’s just say this whole episode was really informative on the bias of all the media. Everywhere.
Considering the way the Netherlands is always portrayed in the Italian media, it seems the viewers there were disappointed the kidney wasn’t taken out live, on TV.
Dudes, we’re all going to die eventually… do some good! sign your donor card. you won’t need any of that stuff anyway! Have the recipient pray for your whatever…
And the sick part is that if it were an American show it wouldn’t be a hoax..
#18….Angel….thats only partially true Angel. It wouldn’t be a FREE donation here AND we would have charged the callers 3.00 dollars a minute for the calls.
Hmmm,
OK.
How many of YOU are useing my idiosyncratic spellings and Punctuations…
I feel Ashamed that have influenced your selfs…
fun aint it??
I’m proud of this shows producers.
Great way to get your point across
No one needs to be embarrassed if they were duped by this hoax.
I, myself, would have believed the story had I given it much thought. But TV has become such offensive crap that even this show only pushed the envelope a little.
ECA – Was that you holding the “morans” sign?
not really.
its just that I believe that there are to MANY persons that watch TV and STILL think its real…
Iv Met a few that thought that Soap operas were REAL and true, and someone was wondering around them with a camera ALL the time.
What was the greatest wrong … redux?
1) She is not dying.
2) She is not giving away her organs.
3) She did not choose who was going to receive them.
4) It was televised.
Hint-> Its #1.
Fear and loathing on Dvorak’s blog: In search of the American dream.
Yep, fooled. So am I supposed to laugh now? I can’t be an organ donor so what am I supposed to learn from this prank?
But I still think its borderline sick to play a prank like this. Also: it says something about the general state of Dutch TV that so many people believed it: it could actually be done. There’s no getting around the fact that Endemol is a tv factory that puts out a whole truckload of telivisional mass-appealing crap!
Ah well, glad I stopped watching telly.