A Dutch reality show in which a supposedly dying woman had to pick one of three contestants to receive her kidneys was revealed as a hoax on Friday.
Identified only as "Lisa", the 37-year-old woman turned out to be a healthy actress but the three candidates were genuine kidney patients, details the show's producers revealed in the last minutes of the "The Big Donorshow".
"Their life is bitter reality," the presenter said, after revealing the deception at the moment when Lisa was to have made her life-saving choice.
I can understand using the publicity to gain attention for a good cause, but I think it was in bad taste to go ahead with the entire show.
I will assume the contestants had at least been informed it was a hoax earlier than at the show’s close. (You can just imagine them perching on the edge of their seats, ‘Will it be me?!! Will it be me..?!!’, and then being told they’re all going home with a bag of the sponsor’s treats, …and no kidney.)
Apparently the audience went silent when it was revealed; then later had a jolly good laugh about the whole thing. Yeah, they’re not dying on the other end of a dialysis machine waiting for a kidney, ‘Oh, ha ha, such a fuss!! And people were thinking the show was real! (Including us who were indecent enough to buy tickets to see it.) Ahahahaha!!!’
It was real! Except she wasn’t a donor and none of them were going to receive a kidney…
*scratches head*
Either way, it's all rather bizarre.
P.S. Aside from this, something I just heard in the news has tickled me. Paris Hilton, about to be incarcerated, will be in the 'special needs' section.
Indeed.
