The Jump, currently on its third series and third serious injury in a fortnight, has been branded the most dangerous reality TV show yet. Viewers have called on Channel 4 to axe the show, which follows celebrities throwing themselves into various winter sports. But is The Jump really the worst one out there? What of these other contenders?
Total Wipeout
An enormous assault course spread across a suburb of Buenos Aires and crafted out of giant balls and old-fashioned humour, Total Wipeout makes The Jump look like The Hunger Games. The BBC show, axed after six series, featured the kind of “funny” injuries that can be sorted with a Mr Bump plaster and a pat on the back from host Richard Hammond. And yet – in 2009, two celebrities sought legal advice over injuries they had sustained, including torn ligaments and a fall that left a contestant on crutches for weeks.
I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here …
Who can forget Gillian McKeith keeling over on live telly after she was selected for her seventh bushtucker trial? OK, her campmates later questioned the veracity of the faint (“if that was real, so are my teeth” said Shaun Ryder), but the fact is it’s not all Christopher Biggins cuddling up to a jungle rat. Medic Bob McCarron has also had to remove funnel web spiders – the most dangerous in Australia – from the camp. The medical team are reported to treat an average of 30 cases a day in the clinic, and during the 2013 series, one crew member suffered severe anaphylactic shock from a tick bite. It’s not exactly a danger-free zone for the jungle residents, either. During last year’s final, a spider saw out its last moments on ITV when it was eaten alive by Ferne McCann, prompting hundreds of complaints to Ofcom about turning “cruelty to animals” into entertainment.
Splash!
Before the second series of the show – in which Olympian Tom Daley attempted to turn stars into divers – had even started, TV presenter Rav Wilding injured his leg during a training session. It led to a blood clot in his lung that left him fighting for his life. Splash! was cancelled by ITV after two series, and the US version was branded too dangerous for its contestants after a catalogue of injuries, from fractured feet to ruptured eardrums. “I hope it’s not a built-in publicity plan,” observed one reality-TV programme developer to Fox News. “How the cast is bumbling around and hurting themselves … has me wondering.”
Survivor
The show that puts two beachwear-clad “tribes” on an island and pits them against one another for a £1m prize lasted just two series in the UK, but in the US, where it has been going since 2000, it has been branded the most dangerous reality TV of all. The first injury – a dislocated shoulder – occurred 17 minutes into the first season, after which host Jeff Probst announced: “We have our first injury!” Since then there have been falls into fires, blackouts, leg punctures, burns, infections and more. In 2013, on the first day of filming season 16 of the French Survivor, a contestant who complained of cramps was rushed to hospital and died following a cardiac arrest. The season was cancelled, but throughout the world Survivor lives on.
Dancing on Ice
It was during a particularly daring “scorpion kick” move that Jennifer Ellison cut open the back of her head with her skate during the second series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice. In a scene right out of Blades of Glory, she continued to finish her routine with blood in her hair, receiving her highest score of the competition. “The adrenaline tonight went a bit too far,” noted Jayne Torvill. “It shows how dangerous ice dancing is.”
