A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 8

This is the eighth year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. Here’s another one:

You always need more than one in your gun.

Want that explained? Go here to read a Business of Screenwriting post.

Today’s story idea: Reality Show Set in Wilderness Taken Off Air, but No One Tells Contestants for Months.

LONDON — The contestants of a British reality show that marooned them in the wilderness for a year as a social experiment have returned to civilization — only to discover the series was taken off air several months ago and no one bothered to tell them.

The Channel 4 program, “Eden,” assembled 23 men and women and dispatched them to a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands, where they were told to set up a self-sufficient community. The group was cut off from any contact with the outside world, and had to “decide on their own rules and laws, build their own shelter, grow their own food and raise their own livestock,” according to a statement released when the show was first announced.

The year-long experiment was recorded by a four-strong crew as well as personal cameras and a fixed rig. Four episodes of the show — covering March, April and May — were broadcast last summer. But ratings slipped from 1.7 million to 800,000, leading Channel 4 to pull the plug on further updates.

Here are the contestants:

Here’s a trailer for the defunct series:

As much as these folks may have suffered due to the utter stupidity and lack of empathy by television executives, I confess I take a certain amount of schadenfreude in this story. Why?

Because I loathe reality TV.

Seriously, I believe much of what is wrong with contemporary society goes straight to the rise of ‘non-scripted’ TV.

But that’s a subject for another time. Let’s just focus on this story.

The most obvious take: Comedy! I’d extract the film crew and make this movie entirely comprised of footage from the show’s participants, each equipped with a body camera.

Here’s a twist: Let’s say the series gets cancelled. The TV network allows the participants to continue struggling. Something happens, a dramatic event. How about one of the contestants disappears? The network leaks footage. Big numbers in terms of eyeballs. The series is brought back.

But how to keep the ratings up? In the parlance of reality TV, the network decides to ‘poke the bear’.

They star to mess with the participants.

The show participants’ behavior becomes wilder, more conflictual, and crazier, the series hits record ratings.

Then in a super twist: The participants make their way back home… and start meting out revenge against the TV show producers and execs!

I’m seeing some murders happening! You know, something for viewers to buzz about on Monday mornings at the water cooler.

It’s Survivor meets The Hunger Games, a mockumentary.

There you go: My eighth story idea for the month. And it’s yours. Free!

Now it’s your turn. What would you do with this story setup?

Each day this month, I invite you to click on RESPONSES and join me to do some further brainstorming. Take each day’s story idea and see what it can become when you play around with it. These are all valuable skills for a writer to develop.

See you in comments. And come back tomorrow for another Story Idea Each Day For A Month.

For other posts in my A Story Idea Each Day for a Month (2017) series, go here.