Split Screen: Various Season
5.0/5
Critic Rating
A TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there’s a catch. The audience knows everything but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Split Screen: Thrill Seekers is a new 6 part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what’s actually real.Host Nick van der Kolk (Love + Radio) asks: does reality TV only succeed when it exploits those involved? He talks to the set designers, crew, and the contestants themselves to learn what it took to p...
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Sep 30, 2024
"(Season: Thrill Seekers) it is best to go in with fresh ears, as I did. Instead of spoiling the content, I’ll spoil the style: it’s Nick van derk Kolk, it’s very good. Nick opts to tell the story of Space Cadets in a non-narrative way, which offers a more beautiful, sweeping listening experience and it’s hard to do."
Score: 5
Miranda Sawyer • The Guardian • Sep 28, 2024
"(Season: Thrill Seekers) He gets interviewees to reveal themselves in a way that others can’t and he tells a story like nobody else. As absorbing as ever from Van der Kolk."
Score: 5
Patricia Nicol • The Times UK • May 12, 2024
"...even wilder reality TV format...The presenter Josh Gwynn is a thoughtful guide. But it is the testimonies of the former contestants — who are now adults and still shocked by the fast-and-loose manipulation by the TV execs who were in loco parentis, — that makes this riveting. …"
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Apr 29, 2024
"I never saw the show but have been picking up pieces from this disaster story for years but am really enjoying immersing myself in it, with all the details."
Score: 5
Stephen O. • Podcast Delivery • Apr 29, 2024
"...delivers a glimpse into the mechanics at play while producing a reality show pegged as "Lord of the Flies but with cameras and in the desert"."
Score: 5
Fiona Sturges • Financial Times • Apr 21, 2024
"Gwynn paints a grimly unsettling picture of naive parents, terrified children and ratings-hungry TV execs who are still trying to justify their decisions 17 years later....embodied the crassness and cruelty of TV networks that thought nothing of misleading contestants in their relentless quest for a hit and then hanging them out to dry."
