CharlotteSometimes
25-08-2005, 05:26 PM
This has just been on BBC news, but apparently it's already been done in Germany.
Dutch TV show seeks sperm donor
The 'Sperm Show' has prompted Dutch politicians' debate
A new reality television show in the Netherlands which sees a woman search for a sperm donor is in the running to be made into a full series.
I Want Your Child And Nothing Else is among five programmes vying for a run on Dutch cable channel Talpa.
Viewers will decide on Saturday night which show they want to see more of.
Other contenders include the efforts of five prostitutes to set up a business, while two people who have never met before will become engaged.
Sparked debate
The pilot episode of the series featured the woman's appeal for a sperm donor and her desire to have children. Men are able to respond to the plea via e-mail.
The so-called "Sperm Show", if made into a full series, will conclude with the contestant's artificial insemination after she has chosen her donor.
The show has already sparked debate among Dutch parliamentarians.
Talpa TV, which began broadcasting earlier this month, is owned by television mogul John de Mol, responsible for the Big Brother format.
The television producer left Endemol last year, after having sold the company in 2000 for £3.7bn.
The majority of programming on the commercial station is to be produced in the Netherlands.
The station will broadcast the Dutch version of Big Brother. For this year's show it is reported that a pregnant contestant who is willing to give birth on air will be recruited.
Talpa also won the rights to show highlights of the Netherlands' main football league, the Eredivisie, ending 40 years of monopoly coverage by the country's public broadcaster NOS. LINK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4183324.stm).
Big sperm race is staged on German reality TV
Luke Harding in Berlin
Sunday January 30, 2005
The Observer
After Big Brother and Jungle Camp, Germans can tune in to a TV reality show this week that breaks new ground in trashiness ... Sperm Race. Twelve men will compete against each other to see which one of them has the 'fastest' sperm.
The contestants, who include two German celebrities and a health freak, begin by donating sperm in a clinic, say the programme's producers, Endemol.
The sperm will then be frozen and sent to the company's studio in Cologne, where the sperm will 'race' towards an egg - lured by a chemical that encourages them across the finishing line. Three doctors, including a gynaecologist, will be on hand to make sure the sperm behave correctly, while cameras will record it all.
As well as laying claim to the title of Germany's most fertile man, the winner will also be given a suitably German reward, a red Porsche.
Endemol Germany's president, Boris Brandt, denied yesterday that Sperm Race represented a new low point in dumbed-down TV. He claimed that the show had a serious scientific purpose. 'Sperm Race is serious. Fertility is a big thing in Germany,' he told Germany's Bild newspaper.
'About 1.8 million German men are unable to have children because they suffer from poor sperm. And there are disappointed girlfriends and wives, as well as parents who wait in vain for grandchildren.'
Brandt, whose company is responsible for the German Big Brother , said the cameras would not follow the contestants into the cubicles when they donated sperm. LINK (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1401672,00.html).
Dutch TV show seeks sperm donor
The 'Sperm Show' has prompted Dutch politicians' debate
A new reality television show in the Netherlands which sees a woman search for a sperm donor is in the running to be made into a full series.
I Want Your Child And Nothing Else is among five programmes vying for a run on Dutch cable channel Talpa.
Viewers will decide on Saturday night which show they want to see more of.
Other contenders include the efforts of five prostitutes to set up a business, while two people who have never met before will become engaged.
Sparked debate
The pilot episode of the series featured the woman's appeal for a sperm donor and her desire to have children. Men are able to respond to the plea via e-mail.
The so-called "Sperm Show", if made into a full series, will conclude with the contestant's artificial insemination after she has chosen her donor.
The show has already sparked debate among Dutch parliamentarians.
Talpa TV, which began broadcasting earlier this month, is owned by television mogul John de Mol, responsible for the Big Brother format.
The television producer left Endemol last year, after having sold the company in 2000 for £3.7bn.
The majority of programming on the commercial station is to be produced in the Netherlands.
The station will broadcast the Dutch version of Big Brother. For this year's show it is reported that a pregnant contestant who is willing to give birth on air will be recruited.
Talpa also won the rights to show highlights of the Netherlands' main football league, the Eredivisie, ending 40 years of monopoly coverage by the country's public broadcaster NOS. LINK (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4183324.stm).
Big sperm race is staged on German reality TV
Luke Harding in Berlin
Sunday January 30, 2005
The Observer
After Big Brother and Jungle Camp, Germans can tune in to a TV reality show this week that breaks new ground in trashiness ... Sperm Race. Twelve men will compete against each other to see which one of them has the 'fastest' sperm.
The contestants, who include two German celebrities and a health freak, begin by donating sperm in a clinic, say the programme's producers, Endemol.
The sperm will then be frozen and sent to the company's studio in Cologne, where the sperm will 'race' towards an egg - lured by a chemical that encourages them across the finishing line. Three doctors, including a gynaecologist, will be on hand to make sure the sperm behave correctly, while cameras will record it all.
As well as laying claim to the title of Germany's most fertile man, the winner will also be given a suitably German reward, a red Porsche.
Endemol Germany's president, Boris Brandt, denied yesterday that Sperm Race represented a new low point in dumbed-down TV. He claimed that the show had a serious scientific purpose. 'Sperm Race is serious. Fertility is a big thing in Germany,' he told Germany's Bild newspaper.
'About 1.8 million German men are unable to have children because they suffer from poor sperm. And there are disappointed girlfriends and wives, as well as parents who wait in vain for grandchildren.'
Brandt, whose company is responsible for the German Big Brother , said the cameras would not follow the contestants into the cubicles when they donated sperm. LINK (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1401672,00.html).