Viewers left 'in tears' over disturbing documentary about 'most evil reality show ever'
BBC The Contestant tells the story of a Japanese man who was unknowingly being filmed live while he was locked up alone in a room for a whole year in the hopes of winning ¥1 million
BBC viewers have been left horrified after discovering the grim details of a one-off reality show that saw its star locked up alone in a room for a whole year, in a documentary called The Contestant. In 1998, budding comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu auditioned for the Japanese reality show named Susunu!Denpa Shonen or, Do not proceed, Crazy Youth.
The challenge he was tasked with was to temporarily cut himself off from the rest of the world and spend all of his time entering mail-in-sweepstakes until he won ¥1 million, which equates to around £6,000. Despite being given the choice to call it quits whenever he wanted to, he decided to soldier on for months, determined to complete the task at hand, which he carried out while being completely naked.
For almost a year, Hamatsu survived off winnings from magazine competitions, having to earn essential items like food, clothing and toilet paper too. However, the contestant thought his actions were going to be aired at a later time but it turned out the TV network was airing the footage live to around 17 million viewers a week in a segment named A Life in Prizes.
This was cruelly revealed to him after being surprised by an enthusiastic studio audience at the end of the show when he was taken into what he believed was another apartment, with the walls falling apart around him, the Metro reports.
At the time, he also picked up the nickname Nasubi, which he still uses today, after his genitals were covered up by an eggplant in the show, which translates to Nasubi in Japanese.
The Contestant documentary recounts what happened on the show and the details which Hamatsu was not informed of as well as an investigation of the 'ethical concerns of reality entertainment in the 21st century'. It was added onto BBC iPlayer this week.
However, after tuning in, viewers have branded what happened at the time as truly 'evil'.
Taking to X to share their horror, one viewer wrote: "Watched The Contestant and can't believe something this deceptive and cruel was allowed. He was completely humiliated for trash reality TV."
Another chimed in: "I'm horrified by all of this. This isn't fun or funny."
A third echoed: "That producer is evil."
A fourth remarked that the show was "absurdly cruel" while others said they'd been left "in tears" after watching it.
Somebody else wrote: "This is all very bizarre. I can't believe people watched this poor guy on TV. "
Speaking to Time s in a recent interview, Nasubi said that 25 years after the experience, he is trying to move forward with his life despite still holding so much 'hatred' towards the producer who led the show.
He said: "I've realised that I cannot change the past but by changing how I think about who I am today I can always change the future.
"When you put energy into other people rather than just focusing on yourself you become stronger than you could ever imagine."
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