LONDON (Reuters) - A reality TV game show that tricks a group of men into winning the affections of a beautiful "woman" who is actually a man -- what could go wrong?
Pay-TV company BSkyB and independent producer Brighter Pictures are facing a threatened lawsuit from six contestants on the show, "There’s Something About Miriam," who are trying to prevent the programme from being broadcast.
The contestants are challenging the consent forms they signed before discovering that Miriam, a male pre-operative transsexual, was not all that she seemed.
"There is no transmission date fixed at present," said a spokesman for BSkyB. "We have received a letter of complaint."
In a recruitment advertisement for the show, whose working title was "Find Me a Man," Brighter Pictures offered "the adventure of a lifetime" with a 10,000 pound prize to men aged 20 to 35 who "want it all" and are "fit and up for everything."
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Reality shows increasingly rely on duping their contestents. The show "Joe Millionaire" depicted a group of young women who thought they were wooing a millionaire who was in fact a construction worker. Another U.S. show, "Boy Meets Boy," featured a man courted by other men only to discover that some of his suitors are heterosexual.
Brighter Pictures is a unit of the production company Endemol, which created such reality shows as "Big Brother" and "Fear Factor." A spokesman for the company declined to comment.
