Endemol’s Big Donor Show Revealed as Hoax

HILVERSUM, June 4: Endemol
Netherlands has revealed that its one-off Dutch reality program the Big
Donor Show was a staged stunt that
was meant to raise awareness of the crisis surrounding organ donation in the
Netherlands.

The truth behind the
program was announced at the end of the live show on Friday June 1, which aired
on BNN and was hosted by Patrick Lodiers. In the program, a terminally ill
donor decided which one of three patients would receive her kidney. Endemol
stated that the donor was really an actor, but the three patients were genuine
cases who were fully aware of the premise of the program and supported it from
the start.

According to Endemol, the
program was staged to highlight the shortage of organ donors in the
Netherlands. Only 12 percent of people in Europe own a donor card and the
shortage of donors is rapidly increasing. Across Europe, 40,000 people
are currently waiting for an organ and between 15 and 30 percent of these will
die as a result of not getting one.

Paul Römer, the managing
director of Endemol Netherlands, commented: “If the Big Donor Show had been real it would indeed have been shocking
but these facts illustrate that the reality is far more so. In staging
this program, our goal has been to prompt a debate about this crisis in the
Netherlands. We have succeeded in spades. In fact the impact of this has gone
far wider than we imagined. This is an issue that goes beyond Dutch borders and
across Europe. The message we want to send is that people need to take action
now and fill in a donor card.”

Laurens Drillich, the
chairman of BNN, added: “Obviously a staged program of this kind can only ever
be a one-off but organ donorship is a subject that BNN is dedicated to and will
continue to focus on. We have been more successful than we could have hoped in
starting a hugely important debate and we will ensure our viewers are kept
informed about what impact this campaign has had. For us it goes on.”