Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
NBC ADDS ULTIMATE REALITY SHOW
NY (Reuters) 24 November 2003 - Executives at NBC have announced that what they call "the ultimate reality show" will debut next Fall. "Who Wants to Live to See Next Year" will follow 10 desperately ill people who vie for a life-saving organ transplant. "Who Wants to Live: Kidney" will start shooting in February at new wing of New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital center, built especially for the series. The contestants will be divided into "wards" and compete against each other in a series of elimination events. All will be tissue matched to a single donor, but only the last survivor will get the kidney. "After the ratings started to slip for 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' and all the other shows, we realized that the public was getting jaded," said VP of Reality Programming Tim Phillips, "It was no longer enough to see an emotional explosion, a personality disintegrate or the possibility of a serious injury. We have to raise the stakes. What's more dramatic than life and death? Drama shows have been mining this area for years, so I don't see why anyone should object. And with all these sick people you have this great sympathy angle. We think it is going to be a ratings monster."
None of the other networks were willing to comment on the proposed show, and an ABC executive denied that his network was rushing forward with production on "Who Wants to Live to See Next Month" in which 7 people would be buried in an abandoned mine for 30 days with only enough food and water for one person to survive the entire month.
(c) 2002 Joseph DeMartino
NY (Reuters) 24 November 2003 - Executives at NBC have announced that what they call "the ultimate reality show" will debut next Fall. "Who Wants to Live to See Next Year" will follow 10 desperately ill people who vie for a life-saving organ transplant. "Who Wants to Live: Kidney" will start shooting in February at new wing of New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital center, built especially for the series. The contestants will be divided into "wards" and compete against each other in a series of elimination events. All will be tissue matched to a single donor, but only the last survivor will get the kidney. "After the ratings started to slip for 'Survivor' and 'Big Brother' and all the other shows, we realized that the public was getting jaded," said VP of Reality Programming Tim Phillips, "It was no longer enough to see an emotional explosion, a personality disintegrate or the possibility of a serious injury. We have to raise the stakes. What's more dramatic than life and death? Drama shows have been mining this area for years, so I don't see why anyone should object. And with all these sick people you have this great sympathy angle. We think it is going to be a ratings monster."
None of the other networks were willing to comment on the proposed show, and an ABC executive denied that his network was rushing forward with production on "Who Wants to Live to See Next Month" in which 7 people would be buried in an abandoned mine for 30 days with only enough food and water for one person to survive the entire month.
(c) 2002 Joseph DeMartino