The Million Dollar Contest
The news of the contest traveled quickly since it was first announced on the radio earlier that afternoon. By the evening it made every newscast in the country and all of America was buzzing about the challenge. The next morning the headline of a local newspaper read:
Bulletin
NBC to host “Wilderness Game Show”.
Primetime show will find ten contestants to see who could survive in the wilderness the longest without any civilized tools. Winner to receive one million dollars.
By the end of the week, letters from all around the country flooded the NBC offices. Ten contestants were chosen and the program began to air just two months later. The ten contestants were sent to the wilderness of North Dakota where each was given 200 acres of land to use to their disposal; each having access to some water source.
The contestants were striped of their cloths and all tools. Each was given one knife, one blanket, and a map of how to get out should they choose to give up. They were to be so secluded that no even the cameras would follow their journey. The broadcast was basically a view of the forest waiting for each person to give up.
On the evening of June 30th, America watched as these ten contestants, five men and five women, were escorted to their prospected area of the wilderness and left to fend for themselves. Each night, America tuned in to see if any of the contestants had given up yet. On just the second day, the first two contestants came wandering out, both of which were women. That nights show feature the an interview of both contestants.
The first woman out, Martha, said that it was a lot harder that it first would seem. She stated that she was attempting to cross a river when she slipped into the river and lost her knife in the process. And when it started raining and she could not build a shelter, she was forced to exit the competition. The second woman out, Abigail, was chased by a black bear and she was forced to exit her area of the forest. Both women were given some small gifts and sent back home.
It wasn’t until the fifth and sixth days of the competition that the next two contestants came out of the forest. This time, one man named Jarrod, and one woman named Maggie found their way to the exit. Both of who could not obtain any substantial food beyond some small plants and would have starved if they remained any longer. On the 8th day of the competition, one more woman, Stacy, walked out suffering from severe stomach pains after she contracted poison ivy.
At the two week mark, five contestants remained in the wilderness, four men and one woman. But on day sixteen, two men walked out. Jeffery and Theodore were forced out of the race after they had each eaten a poisonous plant and became ill. This left just three people left in the running. Theodore commented later that he had run into some problems with a large amount of mosquitoes in his section of the woods.
On the 20th day of the show, the last women limped out of the forest. She had injured her leg while hunting a deer on the 17th day. She tried with all her might to carry on in the contest injured but on the late on the 19th day, her injuries got the best of her and she began her journey to the exit.
By this point, the show had grabbed the attention of millions of viewers nationwide. Just two men remained in the woods, Michael and James. The show was practically broadcasted twenty-four hours a day as America waited anxiously for one of these men to give up. It wasn’t until the 35th day that James walked out the forest. He had made the crucial mistake of leaving his campfire unattended while he went out looking for food. While he was away the fire spread around his shelter and by the time James returned and put the fire out, all of his belongings had been destroyed and he was left with no other choice but to evacuate the forest.
James was informed that he was the ninth person out so he stayed to congratulate Michael. But when the NBC crew went into the woods to tell Michael that he had won all of the televisions had went black, for what was found of Michael was merely a corpse. It was later determined that he had contracted West Nile Virus from a mosquito and died on the 27th day.
With that news, James was declared winner and was presented a check of one million dollars to mark the end of the competition. The show received great reviews for NBC, but the producers said that there would be no more like it because of the injuries received by several of the contestants.
Concluding Statement
Merchant describes man as one with the wilderness. She believes that theory’s of the Garden of Eden have shaped the Western view of wilderness. That wilderness is this lost paradise. But in this story, no one contestant is really bonded with the wilderness. Their time in the forest is a constant struggle with nature. However, the reviews the show received from the public shows the romantic appeal of wilderness on the American culture. On the contrary, Nash believes that wilderness is not some lost paradise. As Nash describes, wilderness is mans greatest evil, and that man should fear it as an enemy. In this story, the wilderness is by far the opposite of paradise for the ten participants. After living their whole lives in the lap of luxury, most of these contestants don’t survive a week in the wild.
The contest shows that civil society has grown so far away from basic knowledge, that if all of modern society suddenly disappeared, very few would be able to survive.
