"Going to Extremes: The Most Shocking Reality TV Shows That Pushed Boundaries with 30 Million Viewers!"

AMERICA’S Next Top Model wowed audiences for 24 series, shocking fans with its outrageous challenges and treatment of contestants.

Now, a new Netflix , , lays bare the cult show’s toxic underbelly and revisits some of its most horrific moments.

Tyra Banks was the face of America’s Next Top Model for more than 20 seriesCredit: Getty The series has come under fire for getting models to race swapCredit: The CW Comedian Nasubi claimed he wished for death while appearing on an extreme Japanese reality showCredit: BBC

From race-swap challenges to photo shoots themed around , the extreme scenes make for disturbing viewing decades on, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reality TV of the late Nineties and early Noughties.

Brand and culture expert Nick Ede, who was once dubbed “The Simon Cowell of Style” while a judge on Project Catwalk, says he saw “first-hand how different television was in the 2000s”.

He tells The Sun: “It was a pre-social media era where the priority wasn’t duty of care, it was headlines.

“Producers were chasing front pages and ratings and not thinking of the aftermath of the shows. There were no instant X pile-ons, no TikTok dissections and deep dives, no contestants live-posting their trauma.

“If you felt wronged, your only outlet was a magazine interview weeks later, which you were paid for handsomely.

“That lack of scrutiny created a culture where shock was currency.

“Broadcasters were trying to outdo one another with ever more extreme, uncomfortable, or outrageous moments. Aftercare was minimal.”

“Duty of care as we understand it now simply wasn’t embedded in the system. It was a Wild West era of reality television – creatively sensational, culturally defining, but often ethically questionable.

And while it was a moment that can’t and shouldn’t be replicated, we also have to acknowledge that some of what happened, both on and off screen, crossed lines that should never have been crossed.”

Here, we look back at some of the most extreme shows from the early days of reality TV – some that would have truly dark and disturbing consequences.

Susunu! Denpa Shonen

Nasubi has since said the lonliness was the hardest thing to deal with while isolatedCredit: BBC

Stripped naked, forced to eat dog food and deprived of human contact for hundreds of days, Nasubi claimed he wished for death.

He was the only participant in Japanese reality TV show A Life In Prizes, which ran until 2002 and at its 1998 peak pulled in more than 30million viewers a week in .

In order to escape his confinement, Nasubi, then 22, needed to win a million yen’s worth of competition prizes.

Aspiring comedian Nasubi – real name Tomoaki Hamatsu, from rural Fukushima – had been unaware of what he agreed to do and only surrendered his clothing under the ­assurance that the show would never make it to air.

He spent 15 months in isolation, which won him a Guinness World Record for isolation.

Nasubi told The Sun : “The loneliness affected me much more than not being able to eat or not having clothes.

“There were so many moments where I thought it probably would be better to die now than keep going.”

There’s Something About Miriam

Male contestants weren’t told about Miriam being transgender The eventual winner of the show would be told that Miriam was transgenderCredit: Collect

shows have been a staple of reality TV since the concept started – and in the search for shock factor, some have gone beyond the pale.

Sky One opted to have six lads compete for stunning model Miriam, without telling them she was and hadn’t undergone gender reaffirming surgery yet.

The contestants only found out if they won, after flirting and filming intimate scenes with the Mexican model. The £10,000 and romantic trip was unlikely to temper the shock reveal.

But the show never made it to air as the men involved sued the company, taking home £500,000.

The impact of the show was explored in a documentary Miriam: Death Of A Reality star, which explores the life and tragic death of Miriam Rivera.

She died in 2019 aged 38, with authorities ruling it a suicide, but her husband has long maintained she was murdered.

Supersize vs Superskinny

The show got people with different extreme eating habbits to switch for five daysCredit: Handout

A tea-time favourite back in the Noughties was ‘s Supersize vs Superskinny, which matched underweight participants with someone morbidly obese.

Over seven series, the contestants swapped diets for five days through the feeding clinic overseen by Dr Christian Jessen.

After that, both were put on a healthy eating plan for three months before returning for the final weigh in and health screening.

They would also be presented with shocking photos of their bodies, claiming to show what they’d look like if they didn’t change their ways.

The show was widely slammed for taking risks with contestants’ health, though Channel 4 argued everything was done under the supervision of medical experts.

It was accused by charity Beat of triggering viewers with eating disorders. Chief executive Susan Ringwood said: “They’re deadly, not entertainment.”

The Biggest Loser UK

Amy-Mac was one of the contestants on The Biggest Loser UKCredit: Shutterstock Editorial Kevin won his series in 2012 by losing the most weightCredit: Shutterstock Editorial

Another show focused around weight loss was The Biggest Loser UK, which has since been branded as “fat-shaming” and slammed for promoting unsustainable weight loss methods.

Whoever lost the most would take home £25,000.

It was hosted by , who was quick to defend the show against critiques.

She said: “They are not crash-dieting, it’s all sensible eating and exercise.

“They are all amazing. I find it very inspirational seeing people that think they can’t change their lives and they need a leg up.”

Viewers would see obese contestants lose up to seven stone in three months. It was suggested that losing weight was a matter of personal responsibility without considering other factors.

The routines from trainers were so harsh some contestants threw up, others passed out and some even got injured.

It ran from 2005 until 2006 on Sky Living before being revived by in 2009, running until 2012.

Who’s Your Daddy?

TJ Myers had to try and guess which of the eight men was her actual fatherCredit: © 20th Century Fox Film Corp If TJ got it right, she would get $100,000. If wrong it would go to her fake fatherCredit: Alamy

In one of the strangest reality show concepts of all time, a glamorous young woman had to try to work out who was her real dad.

Actress T. J. Myers had grown up with adoptive parents, so had no idea who her father was.

So on the game show Who’s Your Daddy?, she was asked to pick from eight middle-aged men – seven of whom were actors and one of whom was her biological dad.

If she guessed correctly after studying them during challenges like dance-offs, she’d get $100,000, if she got it wrong, her fake father would get it.

A clip on shows a man telling the girl: “I want you to know that you were conceived in absolute love.”

The confession was a lie, and he was revealed to be an actor attempting to win the prize.

Adoption charities were furious at the Fox show, which ran for just one series in 2005, slamming it as “destructive, insensitive and offensive”.

Deborah Capone, a single mother with a five-year-old adopted daughter, started a campaign to have the show axed with an email campaign.

She stated: “We just don’t think adoption is a game show.”

By the end of the show, Myers successfully guessed her biological dad, a former marine named Charlie, and walked away with the $100,000.

The Swan

Lorrie Arias says she has been left struggling mentally since the showCredit: Fox Contestants were given plastic surgery recommended by a panel of plastic surgeonsCredit: Fox TV

Women’s bodies were seen as fair game in the 2000s, and The Swan was based around two women per episode being given a physical transformation – as decided by a panel of experts.

At the end of each episode, one woman would be selected to go through to the season finale, which would be a pageant-like set-up to pick a winner.

After the show aired for two series in 2004 and 2005, a former contestant lashed out at the damaging issues it had left her with.

Lorrie Arias told Huffington Post that she had gone on to suffer from , agoraphobia, and extreme body dysmorphia.

She claimed she had the most procedures of any contestant on the show – including a tummy tuck, buttock lift, inner thigh lift, dual facelift, upper lip lift, upper and lower eye lift, endoscopic brow lift, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, and a breast lift.

“I was screaming for the executive producer,” she said. “I was screaming, ‘I want my face back!’ That’s how freaked out I was. Intelligently, I knew that was impossible. But it was so weird. It was like looking at somebody else, but it was you.”

Fellow contestant Belinda Bessant claims the show left her with scarring on her face and said she regrets agreeing to the surgeries.

She told Mel Magazine : “The before pictures were made to make us look as ugly as possible.

“I had beautiful eyebrows and eyes, I wasn’t unhappy with my face structure… today you can see three vertical scars on my head, which are made worse by the hair loss.”