Contestant on NBC Reality Show Commits Suicide

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/business/media/15reality.html?pagewanted=print&position=

A contestant in "The Contender" a new NBC reality series about boxing scheduled to start next month, committed suicide yesterday in Philadelphia, network executives said last night.

NBC executives said that the show would go on as planned, starting March 7.

The contestant, Najai Turpin, 23, a middleweight boxer from Philadelphia who was known as Nitro, took his life, NBC executives said.

They offered no other details about the suicide, though they said they thought it had nothing to do with events on the television show.

"The Contender" chronicles not only the boxers' efforts to win the television tournament, which carries a prize of $1 million, but follows their personal lives, including their relationships with spouses and children. Mr. Turpin's girlfriend also appears in the series, NBC said.

Mr. Turpin, who entered the series as a well-regarded young fighter with a 13-1 record, had a 2-year-old daughter with his girlfriend.

[GetTheRightVote]

1. This is really to sad to think of, I hope it did not have anything to do

with the show, but I am not so sure of it.

:kick:

[itzamirakul]

7. The show had been completely taped before

he committed suicide. By that fact, we can pretty much surmise that he did NOT win the final contest or the big one million dollar prize. It is not likely that he would kill himself before receiving the prize, had he won it.

T my way of thinking, the fact that he did not win and probably that that prize money was vital for him and his family, he saw no other way out, AT THAT TIME.

The sad thing is, that if most suicide self-abused victims could only wait a little while, the problem usually disappears or a solution appears.

[Warpy]

2. "Reality shows" are really CRUELTY shows

with cruelty to the contestants by the producers and cruelty of the contestants to each other the basis for all of them.

I don't know why that poor guy killed himself, but I'm sure institutionalized and televised cruelty didn't help his situation.

Eventually, somebody on one of the more violent shows will be killed outright. That's probably the only thing that will stop this particular variety of trash.

[TaleWgnDg]

4. hear, hear, hear !! well said too. n/t

[Catch22Dem]

8. Bah, I disagree

No one is forced to go on a reality show. Everyone knows how they work, if you agree to go on one, odds are you've tried your ass off just to make it on the show. Once you've made the commitment to do it, you're accepting the risks.

[LinuxInsurgent]

21. so? It is cruel...it's sadist voyeurism.

there were slaves who liked their enslavement...that doesn't mean their slavery was less cruel.

It is about cruelty..it's about physical cruelty in some...it's about psychological cruelty...it's about raw competition and screwing the rest...King of the Hill mentality...

and what people tune to watch is to see HOW the losers take their losing...people get a masturbatory effect from seeing a woman or man they didn't like lose.

It's sadist voyeurism.

About the only REALITY show that I know that doesn't do this is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy...and other "health" shows. They are all about improving someone...not King of the Hill "winner take all" dumb American individualism mentalities.

I don't watch those shows...it just reminds me of how low this country has gone...and I'm no Christian Taliban moralist/traditionalist...I just think the Herd is in charge...

[Catch22Dem]

25. are we comparing voluntary reality TV to slavery? (n/t)

[lostnfound]

24. How convenient for corporate sponsors to have these ugly programs

Actually, it's shows like Fear Factor that are really revolting. Erase the concept of dignity from our culture in the process. Put degradation and desparation on display, to remind people watching that their fellow humans are worthy of contempt.

It's the Anti-Solidarity Show.

[merh]

14. Reality shows are today's versions of the Roman coliseum and

the lions and the slaves or the gladiators battling to the death. We, the viewing public, are just like the crowds cheering the cruelty, the brutality and the violence. :thumbsdown: :thumbsup: (imho)

[LinuxInsurgent]

22. applause...

couldn't have said it better.

[Missy Vixen]

23. We've been wondering when this would happen

>Eventually, somebody on one of the more violent shows will be killed outright.<

I've told DH several times now that I was waiting for what I believe is an inevitable fatality on "Survivor" or "Fear Factor". Unfortunately, though, it would drive the ratings (and the hype,) even higher.

The only way the reality shows will vanish once and for all is if the public shuts them off. Completely.

Julie

[Vidar]

26. Agree hugely. Tastelessness, cruelty & viyeurism abound in

this latest version of the Roman "bread & circuses" ("panem et circum" I think, but my latin is very rusty.)

[autorank]

3. Over 90% of the time, suicide is highly correlated with major depression.

[imenja]

5. no doubt, but NBC will find a way to profit from this

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. I hope they face a lawsuit.

[autorank]

9. Could be.. A talk show list a bundle when a "ambush" guest killed

another guest after a big surprise on the show. These shows have an obligation to screen contestants to make sure that they can handle the crap on the show. I doubt that any of them do this so it's just a tragedy waiting to happen.

[imenja]

13. I thought they did psychological tests

They put people through an enormous amount on those shows. They could just as well have one contestant kill another as himself. It's pretty scary actually.

[autorank]

17. Don't know. The type they'd need to do would cost them about $2K a person

They may give them a self-report inventory but that, alone, wouldn't be enough to pick up someone with a serious problem. I'm sure that they have them sign a waiver against any harm, etc. done by the show. Those can make it difficult to sue later. What a nice crew these network entertainment folks are!

[reprobate]

6. Reality shows are our version of the games at the Coliseum. Thumbs down.

[cdsilv]

12. bread and circuses.....

...we are the declining roman empire....

and bush is our caligula...someone please give him orange juice from a lead-glazed jug!

what a nasty world I have brought my kids into.

God forgive me.

[barb162]

16. good comparison you and reprobate make and I think you're both

right. I have yet to watch more than five minutes of one of these damn shows. I can't even stand watching their commercials and I was wondering how in hell they have become so popular. But there's the answer: bread and circuses...watching these idiots make fools out of themselves.

[lazarus]

10. Hey, folks

READ THE ARTICLE.

"They offered no other details about the suicide, though they said they thought it had nothing to do with events on the television show."

And nobody forced him to sign up for the show. Anybody who acts surprised at what happens on a reality TV show now is either lying, ignorant, or a naif.

[kevinmc]

11. Commit Suicide...............

Just think of how many viewers do that when watching Paris Hilton or Fear Factor

[CornField]

15. Permanent solution to a temporary problem

Of course, I don't know exactly what was going on, but I would hope it wouldn't be something death-worthy at 23.

[undergroundpanther]

18. Desperation,need and addiction

And certain reasons ,certain situations,signing up for a reality show,doing porn in certain situations are acts of desperation not" voluntarily free made choices".

I hate this when I hear people make excuses about how sometimes people get involved with something exploiting,porn,reality TV drugs,ect..and other people observing from the outside assume they chose it freely..They assume the people being exploited just one day chose this automatically almost like a whim.

Sometimes people are desperate and all the choices are bad. Sometimes life is cruel and you can see no other way to eat or live. The world isn't easy and some people have less opportunities in life.

It's real easy to put your own standard of freedom projected upon someone else's life as if they too had your life.But each of us come to a decision with different circumstances,backgrounds,educations,life experiences,needs,dreams, desperations and situations.


Sometimes an feeding an addiction one acquires in ignorance or in a state of coercion(pressure) leads some people to porn,sometimes it's re-traumatizing for someone who has faced abuse before but is trying to resolve it in negative ways acting it out.It's not a choice it's a compulsion in a person,doing them harm that's being taken advantage of.

Sometimes a person is afraid under pressure wants to take care of others, and they do stuff that gets them exploited to feed their kids.Some people have debts like medical bills or mortgages over their heads and can't find work.They are desperate and desperation does not lend to a person making well thought out unforced 'choices'.

Some people can't see another way to do what they must do.
And when you can't see another way,to do things,it might as well be forced.

Choices made in life are not always free.

And I know the people who like to point to choice as if it just exists in a vacuum and it always omnipotent ,don't like to hear that coercion,circumstances,pressures and traumas can make a choice you make not really be your own choice. The pressures illness circumstances,dire need and desperation talk louder than free will.Come on people this is how The military,and rich Republicans operate,they put people in dire straits so they can "coerce a decision," and get what they wanted from them,cheep..

[Tsiyu]

19. Very interesting stuff, UP

Unfortunately, most of us have layers of rationale we peel away to justify what WE do, and snap judgements to make to define what OTHERS do.


I believe one of the first Survivor shows ( perhaps in the UK?) had a contestant commit suicide. Some people are going to choose this option no matter what anyone does or doesn't do to impact that person's life. Most of the reality shows suck, but this guy may have chosen this option without ever having been on the program.

My condolences to his family.

[HuckleB]

20. There's more to it than that, in most cases.

The Neurobiology of Suicide and Suicidality
http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2003/june/heeringen.asp

[baldguy]

27. I'm sure the producer is shitting himself

'cause they didn't get it on tape