If you think today’s reality television shows go on forever, you have seen
nothing yet. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox television is planning a new variant of
the cut-price phenomenon that might literally never end.
Forever Eden, which is due to begin this spring, will take a group of
unmarried people on an open-ended detour from their lives, transplanting
them in a luxury resort abroad and letting them get on with everything
attractive, fun-loving single men and women might be expected to do when
paid to spend the rest of their days on the beach or in bars.
”These people could be on the air for six months, a year or three
years,” Mike Darnell, Fox’s head of alternative programming, told Variety
magazine. ”If you want to stay and you play your cards right, you could be
on the air forever. It’s the first real try at a reality soap opera.”
The series is bound to invite comparisons with the 1998 film, The Truman
Show, in which Jim Carrey plays the title role as a man who unwittingly
spends his life in a reality TV bubble.
”The idea is they are not going on a reality show. They are actually
divorcing themselves from their lives,” Mr Darnell said in another
interview.
The contestants, who will have no contact with the outside world, will
be kicked out of their television paradise at the whim of the producers.
It is fair to expect that flamboyant and flirtatious behaviour will be
rewarded, while any participant who decided to lock himself in their room
to meditate or write a major American novel will not last long. Earnings
will depend on longevity, and contestants who leave Forever Eden before
their time is up risk losing their money.
”Even though they are living in luxury and it’s going to be wonderful,
we are going to introduce elements to make it not so wonderful,” Mr
Darnell said. ”Surprise guests may arrive, who are there to stir things
up, who won’t necessarily be members of the cast, but could be people from
their past.”
Casting the show has already begun, but it is unclear how big the ultimate
cast will be. Fox has committed itself initially to 25 episodes. After
that, Forever will last as long as television viewers keep watching. — COPYRIGHT: GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS LIMITED 2004