They came up with plans to prevent suicide and tackle climate change. Then on Day 4 of the reality TV challenge came a final twist: one person must kill himself to win the money, while another must survive.
And this man found himself in exactly the predicament he wanted to avoid: the reality show’s last challenge.
“I wanted to die,” he told the Guardian following the challenge’s televised release. “Why did they ask me to do this to myself? Because I’m the only one left. And I need to finish what I started.”
He is among the people who will be forced into the role of suicide, following the challenge’s release in the US on Friday.
The ‘American Idol’ cast are taking part in ‘The Great American Hunt’ – a survival campaign to raise awareness of the issue of suicide. The challenge is set to air on a channel of the same name – the CBS-owned network.
Suicide among celebrities is a taboo topic. The subject can cause major problems for an already fragile public image.
However, the reality TV community is tackling the issue. The “American Idol” singer Adam Lambert, the singing duo JT and the Temptations, reality television’s “The Bachelor”, Fox’s “The X Factor”, NBC’s “The Voice” and TLC’s “The Real” all feature suicides, while the “American Idol” cast have all been forced to endure at least one moment in which one contestant has committed suicide.
With “The Great American Hunt”, the cast of the reality show have joined forces to take their message of suicide prevention to the public.
The US of A is home to one of the highest rates of suicide in the developed world. In the 2011 World Health Organization’s annual report on global health, suicide ranked as the 10th leading cause of death globally. According to USA Today, the suicide rate in New Jersey is the highest in the country.
But the reality show cast have managed to overcome the stigma surrounding the