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I had planned to post about the upcoming British reality show Bestseller. Think American Idol for hopeful novelists. Or, more accurately, Pop Idol. But then I read about the Dutch program Big Donor Show, where a terminally ill woman with an inoperable brain tumor will select a contestant to receive one of her kidneys after hearing pleas from their families.
Outrage has predictably ensued, and one politician is trying to get the show yanked. But let’s not debate the merits and morality of this particular program. Instead, let’s try to top the shock factor by coming up with even crazier ideas. I’ll get us started.
• Death row inmates compete against one another in beer pong; each week’s winners have their sentences commuted to life in prison.
• High school seniors have their college applications reviewed by a CSI-like team. Did you really spend six hours a week volunteering through the Latin National Honor Society? If not, you’re rejected. People with the most accurate resumes, regardless of merit, are accepted. Losers repeat twelfth-grade.
Your turn…
(Also, here are some other ridiculous reality show ideas that actually aired. Via The BBC.)
• There’s Something About Miriam
Six men were invited to spend several weeks wooing an attractive woman. Oh, they later found out the woman was a transsexual.
• Space Cadets
They thought they had blasted off into space from a cosmonaut training camp in Russia — but in fact, they were stuck in a fake spaceship in a warehouse in Suffolk.
• Who’s Your Daddy?
It must have seemed a good idea to the Fox network at the time — take people who were adopted, put them before a line-up of strangers and ask them to pick their real father.
Comments (7)
Comment
Space Cadets was absolutely hilarious. They went to amazing lengths to fool these people into believing they were in Russia and then in space and it was unbelievably entertaining.
posted by Lindsay on 5-30-2007 at 9:04 am
Don’t forget the classic ‘He’s a Lady’, where guys competed to be the best transvestite. TBS aired that Craptacular program.
posted by Haterade on 5-30-2007 at 9:11 am
Why not just make the Shirley Jackson story ‘The Lottery’ a tv show!
posted by JaneM on 5-30-2007 at 9:50 am
Are we trying to be blatently offensive here? Ok, here’s one:
Use the worn out concept of putting a bunch of different people in a house together, but make ‘em all Dissociative Identity Disorder patients. Call the show, “Guess who’s home?”
BTW, I can’t stand (un)reality TV.
posted by Jason! on 5-30-2007 at 10:49 am
Let’s make one called “All or Nothing.” Contestants within a certain normal-ish range of net worth are invited to play some sort of game. Winner gets a ton of cash, losers literally lose everything they have and get to file for bankruptcy.
posted by Jeremy on 5-30-2007 at 10:55 am
America’s Next Game Show Host!
The celebrity panel of Ryan Seacrest, Wink Martindale, and Charo judges contestants in various categories such as Most Optimistic, Shiniest Teeth, Best Hair, and Most Accurate Teleprompter Reading without Comprehension.
The first season’s contestants will include Mitt Romney and John Edwards.
posted by deNoVa on 5-30-2007 at 11:50 am
Here’s a nifty idea…
Ok, take say, oh any arbitrary number, 10 ivy league hopefuls. Have them fill out application after application loaded with both ridiculous and enormously revealing questions. Submit them to the colleges along with hefty sums of money in hopes of getting in. 9 of them get into one of their choices, the 10th is eliminated and forced into the cliche “burger-flipper” career.
Year 1:
Send them to their individual institutions of higher education. One will be tempted into joining a frat where he will inevitably land himself in a hospital for alcohol poisoning. 8 of them will remain.
Year 2:
1 will not be able to cut it academically and will be forced to drop out and question his very existence, eventually leading to employment in some unsavory establishment or admission into a mental institution. 7 will remain.
Year 3&4:
2 will have an existential crisis and end up becoming hippie-hermits. 5 will graduate and attempt to find a job.
Post-grad:
1 will be in financial ruin by age 23 and have to file for bankrupcy. 1 will be unable to find a job and be forced to choose between grad school (leading to financial ruin) or working in some unsavory establishment (stripping?). 1 will marry rich to avoid the perils of adult life. 1 will find some entry level position where every penny will be spent on rent in an over priced neighborhood with a craptastic roommate. The last will utilize his connections, get a fancy job where every spare moment of his life will be occupied by work and inevitably die an early death at age 25.
I call it “Your 20’s”
posted by SuperEmi on 5-31-2007 at 7:26 am