Aside from the practicality of the shows, this is what I find troubling:

Quote:
Certainly, there's an argument that the cast members know the risks involved when they sign up, but isn't there something disturbing about watching a show that appears to be gambling with people's lives?

This, though, is the direction survival TV seems headed. ... [Hawke says] "What they're creating is a culture that is fast heading toward films like The Running Man, where they become gladiator-style snuff films, putting people in harm's way in hopes that something will happen and they'll get big ratings."


Translation: by making the survival condition more and more outrageous, someone will eventually get badly hurt or killed, all in the service of making a "reality show" for an audience that may not know what survival reality is. Sure, we expect so little from the media that it doesn't surprise us when they focus on the fringe to do shows on emergency preparation, or when they have Bear Gryllis do all kinds of stuff that would get most people hurt or killed and call it survival. But gambling with people's life to make this sort of show is cold and useless.