Fox's next reality show: Celebrity Organ Donors?

By David Kronke on May 30, 2007 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mike Darnell, the Karl Rove of Fox’s reality programming, must be kicking himself that he didn’t come up with this idea first: A TV network in the Netherlands will air “The Big Donor Show,” in which a terminally ill woman will choose the recipient of one of her kidneys amongst three contestants.

“The program is unfitting and unethical, especially due to the competitive element, but it's up to program makers to make their choices," said the country’s Education Minister (how’d he get involved?); nevertheless, the government will not try to quash the show.

More fun facts: The kidney may not even be the right match for the winner, and viewers can vote for their favorite moribund candidate, though the final decision still rests with the donor herself, whose inoperable brain tumor might play out as a wild card when she picks the winner.

You just know that if Fox did this, the contestants would have to run obstacle courses with their dialysis machines.

*UPDATE: As my commenter noted, the show was a fraud, putatively to "raise awareness" of the need for organ donors. On Friday night, "Nightline" called it "tasteless." A fraud? Tasteless? Sounds like a real reality show to me.

1 Comments

Fred Farrar said:

Well, Sky News reports this item was too good (or bad, in this case) to be true.
Controversial Kidney Show Is A Hoax A controversial Dutch reality TV show featuring a contest to win a kidney was a hoax, producers Endemol have admitted.

From Sky News, Friday June 01, 2007

The Big Donor Show was supposed to have featured a terminally-ill woman choosing a recipient for her kidneys.

However, at the last minute the programme's producers, who also make Big Brother, revealed on air that the woman starring on the reality show was a healthy actress.

But the contestants trying to win the kidneys are genuine and are still in need of organs.

All knew the programme was a hoax before they agreed to participate.

Programme makers Endemol said their show was intended to focus on the shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands has one of the lowest donor rates in Europe, according to data compiled by the country's Health Council.

About 40,000 patients are waiting for an organ transplant across the EU. The mortality rate while waiting for a heart, liver or lung transplant is between 15 and 30%.

Paul Römer, Managing Director of Endemol Netherlands, said: "If the Big Donor Show had been real it would indeed have been shocking but these facts illustrate that the reality is far more so.

"In staging this programme our goal has been to prompt a debate about this crisis in the Netherlands.

"In fact the impact of this has gone far wider than we imagined. This is an issue that goes beyond Dutch borders and across Europe. The message we want to send is that people need to take action now and fill in a donor card."

The Big Donor Show was condemned by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende ahead of transmission and sparked controversy worldwide.

An Endemol spokesman told a news conference held after the programme: "I hope the indignation about the show will give way to indignation about the shortage of donors."

However Kuik Bas, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said: "This is not the proper way to get more donors."

Endemol makes Big Brother for a worldwide audience but it has been mired by controversy following a spate of incidents on the shows.

Most recently it was criticised by the British TV watchdog Ofcom following the race row bullying of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and the decision by programme makers in Australia not to tell a contestant her father had died of cancer.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1268700,00.html

June 1, 2007 4:20 PM