SMS and decide over matters of life and death. Looks like they lifted reality shows to the next level.

Kidney up for grabs in TV show

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A dying woman will pick a "winner" from three people wanting her kidneys during a reality TV show on Friday that has been widely criticized as unethical.

Identified only as "Lisa", the 37-year-old woman who has a brain tumor will base her selection on the person's history and conversations with the candidates' families and friends.

Viewers in the Netherlands can give advice via text messages during the 80-minute show which starts at 1830 GMT.

The show has set off a storm of criticism, both at home and abroad, and many believe reality TV has gone too far.

The government has condemned the program as unethical and inappropriate but said there is no law banning such a show. The European Commission has criticized it as being in "rather bad taste".

Public broadcaster BNN, which came up with the idea, said it wanted to draw attention to the growing shortage of organ donors in the Netherlands.

"We are making a program that we know is extremely controversial ... But we believe the reality is far worse," BNN chairman Laurans Drillich told Reuters in an interview, pointing to long waiting lists for organs.

Patients have welcomed the furor over their plight.

"These are the two positive things: the public renunciation of our system and the brave courage of this lady to make this gesture," said Chel Mertens, director of the Kidney Patients' Union of the Netherlands, who has himself received a kidney.

The Netherlands has one of the lowest donor rates in Europe, according to data compiled by the country's Health Council. European Union figures show an improved supply of donor organs could save 10 lives a day across the 27 countries.

Reaction across Europe has been mostly negative.

Only the Dutch could spawn such a show, said conservative German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Web site BellaOnline, which calls itself the voice of women, questioned whether Dutch TV had gone too far.

Callers to a local radio station even suggested the whole thing could be a hoax by BNN to build up its ratings. In a poll of 400 people by research agency Synovate, two-thirds of respondents said the show was a bad idea.

Young people are more likely to watch the show rather than older viewers, the survey showed.

BNN made headlines some years back with a show called "Shooting and Swallowing" underlining the impact of drug use, and another show on sex called "This is How You Screw".

(Additional reporting by Svebor Kranjc)

(Source: Reuters)

I posted this already in the TV forums! Doesn't anybody go there anymore? :(

We have a TV-forum? ;)

Books and TV yes LOL. Ah well, maybe your thread will do better than mine. The two replies I got gave no actual reply to the topic. I really am curious what people think of a reality show of this type. As I said in my thread, no frikken way could I watch these poor people! Sad sad sad.

I'm sorry, had I seen your thread, I would not have posted this one. Regardless, I am rather curious as to how people will vote. As for us, Holland is known for its controversial TV-shows. We invented Big Brother, after all. But we also have shows in which hard drugs are being reviewed or in which people are locked away for years in a villa in the off-chance they'll win a few million. In every single one of these cases, parliament made plenty of noise, but did nothing. (nor should they)

I actually think this is better than most of the reality TV shows. Atleast it has a cause and message, and is about something important as opposed to American Idol aiming to find the next untalented pop star never to make it big, or the show to find the new member of the Pussycat Dolls.

Hey no worries Dreamer. [img]smile.gif[/img] We have a show here in the U.S. as well about drugs called Intervention (it's on A&E channel). It really shows you some hard core druggies. The last one I saw were a couple on meth and their faces had tons of acne and they had lost several teeth apiece, and they would talk about said tooth loss as if they were chatting about the weather "Oh I think it may rain today/loose a tooth today."

Callum I see your point, but not sure if indeed it would do any good, i.e., get more people to donate their organs. I just personally would not be able to watch people that most likely are going to die, and of course the kidney doner we already know is going to be a goner. I am pretty sure the U.S. would not air a show like this. Also, reality shows tend to exploit people for ratings, so I wonder if this show would have the gall to do the same, or if they could somehow keep it respectful? And if it is respectful, will people be interested enough and not horrified by it all to watch it so it gets decent ratings?

I think it's pretty sick, can't they do this in private or something? Personally i think BNN's only concern are the viewers ratings, not those three kids and the terminally ill woman. Just when i thought tv couldn't get any worse, along comes this pathetic excuse for a tv network and prove me wrong. I thought they hit rockbottom with that lame "spuiten en slikken" show, but apparently they could lower it another notch. I'm not gonna watch it, but i understand half the world is interrested in this show and sent a camera crew over to the Endemol studios, so they can show the folks back home life footage from Sodom and Gomorra.

Sometimes late at night when i zap around a bit, i bump into the rerun from DGK from earlier that night, and i can't help asking myself what the hell it is that i'm seeing?!? Is it a staged catfight? A teen orgy? Tryouts for Hollands next pornstar? Is it even real altogether?

Why is there so much shit on my tv lately?

Curious, what was the "spuiten en slikken" show about? And DGK?