Kidney Show A Hoax

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Dutch TV show featuring a dying woman deciding which of three candidates would receive her kidney turned out to be a hoax on Friday, in a stunt to highlight the need for more organ donors.
In the last minutes of the live show which had attracted worldwide attention, right before the fake donor was about to make her choice known, presenter Patrick Lodiers revealed all.
"We are not giving away a kidney here, that is going too far even for us," he told the audience.
The woman, introduced as potential donor Lisa, 37, with an incurable brain tumour, was actually an actress, the BNN public channel said.
The three kidney patients who were presented as candidates were real -- but they were in on the hoax and wanted to cooperate to motivate people to register as donors, BNN said.
"They are not actors, they are real kidney patients and their stories were deadly serious," Lodiers said.
The original premise of the show had sparked uproar in the Netherlands and abroad with many condemning it as unethical to make entertainment out of a life-and-death situation.
Journalists and television crews from all over the world had flocked to the Dutch television studio where the show was held.
"We worked on this stunt for a year but we never thought this would be such a runaway success," BNN director Laurens Drillich told a press conference afterwards.
"We received a lot on international attention for a problem that does really exist," he added.
The channel, which has a built up a following of predominantly young viewers through controversial programming, screened the show on the fifth anniversary of the death of its founder, Bart de Graaff, who had waited years for a kidney transplant.
For the first 45 minutes of the show, it seemed to go ahead as advertised. 'Lisa' was introduced as the donor in an emotional video where she revealed she only had six months left to live. The actress gave a moving account of why she wanted to donate a kidney because a dear friend died of kidney failure.
BNN then introduced three candidates: 36-year-old Esther-Claire, Vincent, 19, and Charlotte, 29. They presented themselves and were quizzed about their lives, their hobbies and even how they voted in the last elections.
In true reality TV style there were short videos about their lives, interviews with their loved ones and even the possibility for viewers to send text messages via mobile phone to show their support.
The publicity stunt was dreamed up by BNN and producer Endemol, the creators of the "Big Brother" reality show.
"Let there be no mistake about it: I would never make a show like 'the Big Donorshow' for real. I understand the uproar but this was needed to get the donor shortage on the agenda," Endemol's director Paul Roemer said in a statement.
Dutch Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk, who earlier this week called the programme "inappropriate and unethical because of the contest element" praised the hoax as "a fabulous stunt."
He added that BNN had chosen "an intelligent way" to demand attention for the donor shortage in the Netherlands.
According to figures published by the Dutch kidney patients foundation 1,088 dialysis patients are at this moment on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. The average waiting time is four years.