It was the reality show to end all reality shows.
The Dutch Prime Minister had said that he feared for his country’s reputation after The Big Donor Show promised to force three patients to compete for a terminally ill woman’s kidney.
In the end, after international condemnation and 45 tense prime-time minutes in which “Lisa” agonised in front of a live studio audience over whether Esther-Claire, Vincent or Charlotte would receive her kidney, the lights went up and it was revealed as a hoax.
“We are not giving away a kidney here, that is going too far even for us,” Patrick Lodiers, the presenter, announced. Turning to the contestants, he added: “They are not actors, they are real kidney patients and their stories were deadly serious.”
The three contestants were genuine sufferers of kidney failure, on the Netherlands’ four-year waiting list for a new organ. Lisa was revealed to be an actress who had a friend who died waiting for a transplant. All agreed to go along with a programme that the makers insisted was to raise awareness of a genuine medical issue, while its detractors suspected it was simply an exercise to revive a flagging channel’s ratings.
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