Meanwhile In Russia: A Reality TV Series Where Crimes Are “Allowed”

Trigger warning: This article discusses rape.

Game2: Winter is a new Russian reality show where “everything is allowed,” including all sorts of brutal crimes.

The series is set to begin next year and the premise is essentially 30 contestants stranded in the freezing Siberian wilderness for nine months. The surviving winner receives a £1.6m prize. It will stream 24/7 online.

The Guardian reports an advert for the show reads as follows: “Each contestant gives consent that they could be maimed, even killed… 2000 cameras, 900 hectares and 30 lives.”

It requires contestants to sign a waiver acknowledging they might be raped or killed, but the rules also state police are allowed to arrest anyone who commits a crime on the show. “You must understand that the police will come and take you away,” the rules state. “We are on the territory of Russia, and obey the laws of the Russian Federation.”

All 30 contestants will be stranded in the wilderness where bears and wolves are likely to be living. According to the Siberian Times, knives will be allowed but guns will be forbidden.

Game2: Winter is the brainchild of entrepreneur Yevgeny Pyatkovsky. He has said that he “will refuse any claim of participants even if they were to be killed or raped”.

The whole thing sounds like a twisted mishmash of the Hunger Games, Man Versus Wild, and Black Mirror.

Rather than a crew, there will be 2,000 cameras scattered around the area and each contestant will be given a personal recording device. To qualify for the show you must be at least 18-years-old and “mentally sane”.

Pyatkovsky intends to project his show to an international audience. He says at least five countries have already expressed the desire to broadcast it for their audiences.

He claims 60 people have already applied.

Photo: VK