Reality Series Set in the Wilderness Neglected to Tell Remaining Contestants It Had Been Cancelled

Reality shows have a reputation for exploiting its subjects for the sake of entertainment, and one British series took things to a whole new, immoral level when it decided to withhold vital information.

Eden saw 23 contestants deserted in the Scottish Highlands, left to start their own civilization. For one year, they were cut off from the rest of the world and forced to fend for themselves while working as a community to survive. That meant creating their own laws, building shelters and raising livestock. The concept failed to make waves with viewers and the show was cancelled after four episodes. Unfortunately, no one told the contestants until months later. Yikes.

According to Variety, 13 participants reportedly quit the show because of hunger, infighting and claims of bullying. The remaining were subjected to extreme boredom and eating chicken feed, among other less pleasurable things. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like anyone died. Still, it must suck to give up that much of your time and energy for something that crashed and burned the way Eden did.

“The appeal of ‘Eden’ is that it was a real experiment, and when filming began we had no idea what the results would be and how those taking part would react to being isolated for months in a remote part of the British Isles,” Channel 4 said in a statement. “That’s why we did it, and the story of their time, including the highs and the lows, will be shown later this year.”

The channel added that they will be airing the rest of the series sometime later this year. That’s a hard pass for me.

(via Variety, image via screencap)

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.