‘The Big Donor Show’ Was a Big Donor Hoax
Dutch Reality-TV Program Punks the Whole Wide World But Good
Join me, everyone, in a collective sigh of relief. Apparently, The Big Donor Show (De grote Donorshow), that wickedly offensive Dutch reality-television program that allegedly would feature a human kidney as the grand prize, was nothing more than a big fat hoax.
The premise of the show reportedly involved a terminally ill woman, identified only as Lisa, choosing one of three individuals in need of a kidney transplant to receive one of her own before her death. Needless to say, this type of public exchange involving human body parts did not go down well with either the Dutch government or much of anyone else on Earth, and the outcry was immediate and shrill.
Friday, however, the people behind the program—Dutch broadcasting company BNN and creators Endemol, the same Australian production company that created the original Big Brother reality series Down Under—revealed that the program’s only purpose was to raise awareness of the lack of available transplant donors and organs in the Netherlands, a country where, just like in others, hundreds of people die each year while waiting in vain for an available organ.
With an audience of approximately 1.2 million viewers observing as the healthy actress who played Lisa selected among the three individuals genuinely requiring a transplant (they were in on the ruse), The Big Donor Show did live up to the “big” in its title by inspiring over 10,000 people to volunteer as organ donors. In that respect, let me say, “Well done, BNN and Endemol.”
Related News: The Big Donor Show: ‘Big Brother’ Creators Endemol Plan Dutch Reality TV Show with Human Kidneys as the Grand Prize
The Big Donor Show logo courtesy of BNN
