Eden was wildly unrealistic
MELISSA HANK
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
If a reality show films in the wilderness and no one’s watching, did it ever really happen? Such philosophical waxing has become a sad possibility for U.K. reality show contestants who were stranded in the Scottish highlands for a year — even though the show had stopped airing on TV.
which debuted last July on Channel 4, set 23 strangers on a remote 600-acre estate to build a self-sufficient community without wimpy things like technology and modern tools. Only four episodes aired, says with viewership tumbling 800,000 from 1.7 million.
Thirteen contestants — including a doctor, a paramedic, a yoga instructor and a fisherman — reportedly left the show amid infighting, hunger and sexual tension.
Nevertheless, producers neglected to tell the remaining 10 that the public didn’t give two fig leaves about — and that their former cohabitants had been slagging the show in the news and social media.
“(I) left because it wasn’t what I was told it was going to be,” participant Tom Wah tweeted. “What you see on TV is all (BS.) You’re not seeing the whole picture. The (show) is extremely misleading.”
Local residents scoffed that contestants had smuggled in junk food and alcohol, and that the show was a joke.
“Some of the participants were even seen in the dentist at Fort William needing treatment after eating chicken feed grit,” Maria Macpherson told the
“It has not done this area any favours — it has just not lived up to expectations.”
There’s still hope that the contestants’ trials won’t be in vain, though. reported Channel 4’s official response: “Filmed every day for an entire year, will return to our screens soon to tell the full story of life in the community and how they have fared.”
And from reality shows that nobody watched to one that a lot of people did: TLC’s landmark home design show will return with new episodes.
“This is a big one,” network president Nancy Daniels said Tuesday. “I am excited to announced that TLC’s most successful and most iconic series is coming back.”
She said the reboot will premiere sometime in 2018, but didn’t elaborate.
gave two pairs of neighbours two days, a design team and $1,000 to redo a room in each others’ houses. It became watercooler fodder because of the designers’ wacky ideas, like attaching live moss and hay to homeowners’ walls. The show originally aired from 2000 to 2008.
Alex McLeod hosted the first season, while Paige Davis helmed the subsequent seven. The show also launched stars including Ty Pennington, who later hosted ABC’s
and Carter Oosterhouse, who hosted a trio of HGTV shows — and