Dark, unseen footage from cancelled reality show 'Eden' will finally air - but expect car crash TV
No one had told the contestants it'd been cancelled
If we were to guess, we’d say ‘not even being on TV’ is one of the worst things that can happen to a reality TV show contestant.
The clue’s in the name, you see. Folks tend to sign up with an expectation that – at a bare minimum – their antics will be broadcast for the world to see. Or at least for their mum to see, even if she’s the only one watching.
Unfortunately, for the contestants on Channel 4 show Eden, they didn’t quite get what they bargained for.
The programme, set in the Scottish wilderness, was axed in the middle of filming. However, the isolated setting meant there was no one around to tell them.
They carried on filming themselves, as per the set-up of the show, with reports at the time suggesting no one was told about Eden leaving our screens.
The bulk of the footage never made it onto our screens, but that could soon be set to change.
According to the Radio Times, the ‘lost’ footage will air this month, despite the original Channel 4 run coming to an end after just four weeks.
It seems the show will be slightly different in nature to its original format, with the new episodes recapping what has been going on in the intervening period.
“It was always going to return,” series producer Liz Foley told the publication.
“It would be completely immoral to allow the contributors to think they were still taking part in something that was no longer happening.”
The original run of the show was hampered by half the cast quitting and endless arguments over food and sex, and the rebooted version will tell that story, meaning it will take on an altogether darker tone.
Foley said: "It does get quite dark. But it's what happened and it's interesting - we didn't manipulate the story, we just filmed events as they unfolded."
One contestant, Tara, told the Daily Mail after leaving: "The girls made it impossible to get close to them or trust them as there was so much gossiping. They weren't vocal or violent to people's faces but, when I walked in, I knew they were talking about me behind my back."
The premise of the show saw 23 people with different skills abandoned in the Scottish wilderness and forced to build a community from scratch. The reboot will air its first episode on 7 August, and be on every weekday.
