As I mindlessly sunk down in front of the television the other day, zapping through the channels I found a really nasty show on MTV: The X Effect. It’s a reality show where a former couple get to live toghether again whilst being spied on by their current partners. The whole idea is to see if this arrangement can cause a breakup between the two couples. In the episode I saw the the ex-couple girl wanted to stay with her current boyfriend but after he had seen her showing affection for her ex he didn’t want her anymore. Like Dorothy Parker once said: what fresh hell is this?
Most of these shows have one common feature: they put a person in the spotlight and then hurt or humiliate him or her in some way. Although modern reality shows have only been around since the late 1990s they have already been linked to a number of suicides and attempted suicides and other suspicious deaths:
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1997: Sanisa Savija throws himself in front of a train after being eliminated from the Swedish edition of Survivor.
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2005: Najai Turpin, shoots himself in the head shortly after appearing on The Contender.
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2005: Carina Stephenson killes herself six months after appearing on The Colony.
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2005: Danny Bonaduce (childhood actor in The Partridge Family) slits his wrists after participating in a show called Breaking Bonaduce (mission accomplished, I guess) but survives.
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2005: TV producer Melanie Bell throws herself of the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas. Although being a producer, the experimental show required her to be a participant as well.
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2007: Cheryl Kosewicz kills herself after being eliminated from the show Pirate Master.
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2007: Nathan Clutter jumpes off a tower after being on Paradise Hotel.
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2007: Rachel Brown dies from a gunshot wound in her home (cause of death still under investigation) about a year after competing in Hells Kitchen.
It’s only what I found searching the net a few minutes. So, this is probably far from all deaths, especially since the networks that air the shows also provide the news. For instance, Fox who air Paradise Hotel insisted that Clutter died in a climbing accident, but the police thought otherwise.
You could argue that the contenders were unstable to begin with, but I think that is all the more reason not to put them through these sinister games. In the 1960s and 1970s similar experiments were conducted by social psychologists, but they are no longer considered ethical. But you can still torture a consenting adult for the sake of entertainment. Where is the logic in that?
And where are all the moralists when you need them? The Parents Television Council rarely complain about reality shows, and when they do it’s usually about foul language or nudity. Sadism is no big issue for them.
But most of all, shame on Douglas Tirola, Liz Gateley, Tony DiSanto and MTV for producing crap like The X Effect.
Filed under: Arts & Culture, Entertainment, Ethics, Movies & TV, Society | 7 Comments
Tags: Cheryl Kosewicz, Douglas Tirola, Liz Gateley, MTV, Nathan Clutter, reality shows, The Parents Television Council, The X Effect, Tony DiSanto
Suicides and deaths? People do take these reality shows seriously. I thought they are all scripted.
There are rumours about some of them being scripted, but most likely they’re not. There is a lot of money to be made from a show that rates well without any paid actors or writers. But I think this genre will eventually peter out. In the long run people want stories.
Interesting post. I think reality shows are here to stay.
They will probably not vanish completely, but they’ll get more scripted and less “real” with time.
Candy died in a car accident after filming A Double Shot at Love. She was most likely excessive speeding and possibly drinking. Living on a dangerous edge.
Not a clearcut suicide, but then again there is a gray area between suicide and reckless behavior.
Appearantly MTV is dedicating the first episode to her – isn’t that heartwarming?