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Danger Island: Yet Another New Low for Reality TV?
by Susan Schechter
-- 07/10/2002
Big Brother 2 had more than its fair share of accused/convicted criminals. But now a new show is being proposed that would seek out ex-convicts as participants! Danger Island is still in the concept phase, but it's taking applications and is looking for a home. Is this yet another new low for reality TV?
Last weekend, I was participating in my weekly Saturday morning routine, watching he sun come up, drinking a good cup of coffee, and web surfing on my laptop. This is my favorite time of the day, when the whole world is asleep and I can watch the birds and the squirrels awaken. I have a routine that includes checking several news websites first and then, of course, checking on RealityNewsOnline to read the new articles posted. Finally, I went to the website of one of my favorite radio talk show hosts, Lynn Samuels, and found a story there: “Has Reality TV sunk to a new low?” Clicking on the hyperlink, I was taken to the main page for a new show, Danger Island.
At first glance, the web site was gorgeous – a nice sunset and palm trees. But upon reading further, this show sounds both interesting and quite disturbing at the same time.
The premise is this: 12 people (six men and six women) will be placed on a deserted tropical island and will compete for one million dollars. Sound familiar? But here’s the rub – they are all convicted criminals. The prize money will be given to the victim of the winner’s latest crime. I would assume the reason for this is not to breach America’s “Son of Sam” Laws.
Professional Manhunters will be brought in from all over the world to try to catch these felons before they can complete that episode’s contest. If the felons complete the contest before they are caught, they move on to the next round in the competition. But if they are caught by a manhunter, then they are removed from the show. According to the producers on the web site, some episodes will conclude with a group of actual crime victims voting one criminal off the island in a Survivor-like fashion.
The web site states:
“All their lives these felons have behaved like predators as they victimized innocent men and women. Now they'll become the prey as they compete in extraordinary physical and psychological contests designed to let them know what it feels like to be stalked through the jungle.”
The web site goes on in great detail how the winner , who of course would be a felon, would not receive any money, however the winning felon would get a $50,000 scholarship for their children to help them “break the cycle.” The site also says the felons would be appearing on this show to receive some type of “redemption” for their crimes. If this is true, what about the victims? Do they get closure? Or do they just see the person who perpetrated a crime against them get famous? I guess the million dollar prize is supposed to help with that.
To further alleviate any misgivings, the site says that nobody convicted of murder, rape, or child molestation will be allowed to participate. That’s good. Frankly, I could not have compassion for any of these types of people. Does that mean the felons will all be white-collar criminals, or drug offenders? Someone who jumped the turnstile or spit on the sidewalk? Someone who milked senior citizens out of their retirement money by illegal pyramid and ponzi schemes? Or someone who held up the local Quick- E- Mart but just didn’t kill anybody? Or maybe Justin and Mike from Big Brother 2 can apply. We’ve already seen the standards of evil on reality TV changing, but this brings it to a whole new level.
The show promises extensive background checks to make sure the contestants are not on drugs, and have never been convicted of the above crimes. The contestant must also be on parole and over the age of 21, and MUST be a mother or father. I only hope the producers of this show do not use the same background search service that CBS and Fox have used for their reality TV shows!
As I said earlier, this concept leaves me with two simultaneous feelings. This show could be real interesting if it is done right and edited correctly. It could be a real hit. As one of my dearest friends in the world who lives in England said to me this morning on our weekly phone call, “ Only in America!” But there is the other part of me that finds this disturbing – and that is the part that scares me to death. One thing I learned from history is that public executions were a real draw in medieval times. People would go to the Town Square to see the convicted put to death. If you go to the Tower of London, the guides will tell you how executions were a huge form of entertainment; people would take the morning off from work to attend the latest beheading, hanging, or drawing and quartering. Or if you have seen the movies Gladiator, Ben Hur, or even my favorite, I Claudius, you know how Rome would put up these types of spectacles for entertainment, and the stadiums would be full of every class of people from the nobles to the slaves.
What also scares me is this: If the show goes on the air, which it probably will, what is next? Will we move to seeing live executions in our lifetime? Sure it’s a leap, but there were many who wanted to see Timothy McVeigh’s execution on live TV. I am reminded of one of my favorite movies from the 70’s, the Oscar-winning Network. In order to keep the ratings high, the evening news show had to keep topping itself, until the only way it could have really magnificent ratings was to commit murder on the air. Today’s viewers are more sophisticated than those of a few decades ago – gone are the days when my parents could sit down and watch I love Lucy or Father Knows Best. Those shows seem so dated and the plots seem boring to the modern viewer, and with an average of 70 channels for basic cable subscribers and over 300 if you have satellite, today’s viewer can be very picky in what he or she chooses to watch. Too many channels, not enough time! In a few years viewers will be wondering how 52 million people could watch the final episode of Survivor 1 without being bored, much like a friend’s teenager asked me the other day how could all those people worldwide watch Princess Diana’s funeral without being bored.
So, if I take the argument that History does repeat itself, is Danger Island nothing more than a Roman spectacle that is merely viewed from our living rooms instead of a stadium in a crowd of people? Or could you say this is 1st Century entertainment for 21st Century couch potatoes?
I should emphasize that Danger Island is still a concept only. No TV channel has picked it up as of this writing, and the web site lists several people at the major US networks to write or e-mail in order to show your support for picking it up in the 2002 television season. This show seems to still be in open casting for contestants (see web site for an application – but please don’t go out and commit a crime just so you can be eligible). The site is very slick and professionally done, and worth a look whether or not you are for or against this type of reality show, or, if you are like the author of this article, somewhere in the middle.
Susan Schechter works for a multinational Financial Markets/News company as a Research Analyst/Biographer covering the UK, Australia and other Commonwealth countries.
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