Reality TV Online Blog

Did you hear about the Dutch reality show that featured a dying woman named Lisa who was going to donate her kidneys to transplant candidates?  The show, titled “The Big Donor Show,” featured 25 candidate hopefuls.  From that group, Lisa would pick three and have them plead their case for her kidneys.

However, Lisa, who was supposed to be gravely ill, turned out to be a quite healthy actress.  The people needing the transplant were real candidates.  Was she scamming the poor transplant hopefuls?  Was she scamming the television producers?  No, it turns out that the television producers were actually scamming the Dutch public.

The producers, who also created the reality show “Big Brother,” were just trying to raise transplant awareness and pressure the Dutch government into reforming the existing organ donation laws.  The show kept up its pretense right until Lisa was to make her final decision.  The three chosen as potential transplant candidates were in on the scam, hoping to raise awareness.  The Netherlands has a very low organ donor rate.  The mortality rate for the patients waiting on a heart, lung, or liver transplant is 15 to 30 percent.  Annually, 200 people Dutch citizens die waiting for a kidney and the average wait time is more than four years.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said the show was not the best way to raise awareness, but overall, the show was received in a positive manner by both the viewing public and the Dutch media.  Approximately 1.2 million watched the show, giving the BBN its seventh largest audience ever.  By the end of the show, nearly 12,000 donor cards were received.  Ronald Plasterk, the Dutch Education Minister said it was a “fantastic stunt.”  But, as the head of Endemol Netherlands Paul Roemer said, you can only do a show like this once.

Read these other great entries

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 4:08 am and is filed under News.