Everyone wants to be a star. Over the past two decades, reality television has been one of the primary ways that normal people become famous overnight. Regular people sign up for extraordinary missions and challenges around the world just to be on television for a fleeting moment. So what happens when a show goes horribly wrong?
Take Eden, a Scottish reality television programme, which was supposed to be a social experiment where 23 contestants were forced to live in isolation on a 240-hectare estate in the remote Scottish Highlands. They were filmed as they learnt to live off the land and created "a society from scratch" over a one-year period.
The only problem – which the contestants found out after the experiment was completed – was that the show stopped broadcasting after only four episodes because of a lack of interest. Ironically, there is now interest in Eden because these contestants were put to the test thinking they would become famous only to find out that no one was watching. Anything for a little fame.
