THE PRACTICE - REALITY SHOW CONTESTANT DIES DURING PRODUCTION

REALITY SHOW CONTESTANT DIES DURING PRODUCTION

The practice of assigning increasingly difficult -- and often dangerous -- challenges to reality-show contestants culminated on Aug. 19, when a contestant on a Pakistani reality show drowned in a lake in Bangkok during the filming of an episode, the Associated Press reported Sunday. The death was not officially disclosed until the body of the contestant, Saad Khan, 32, was returned to his home in Karachi. According to the A.P. account, Khan had been challenged to swim across a lake wearing a 15-pound backpack. He reportedly called out for help, before disappearing underwater. Although fellow contestants attempted to come to his aid, they later said that the water was too murky to spot him. Divers later recovered the body. Unilever Pakistan, the show's sponsor, said that while it did not have a hand in the production of the show, it would nevertheless provide for Khan's wife and children "out of rightness."

31/08/2009