10 Horrifying Reality TV Shows You Won’t Believe Exist

8. The Golden Cage (Tien, 2006 -€“ 2007/RTL 5, 2007 -€“ 2008)

I'm sure that Holland's television is as good as any other country's but then again, it is the country responsible for the media scourge we call Big Brother so who knows. Well, anyone who's watched Dutch TV when you think about it. But anyway, the amazing thing is that Big Brother could have been worse if the original concept hadn't been tinkered with. And not wanting to waste an idea for a reality show that would potentially inspire misanthropy from all who watch it, Dutch channel Tien pulled the original format out of mothballs and thus The Golden Cage was spawned.

The Golden Cage is essentially Big Brother with all of its rationality (such as it is), most of its rules, and any semblance of decency removed. The premise is to gather together a group of swaggering non-entities who are rich enough to front the ‚10,000 entry fee and to shove them in a ‚2 million villa until only one person is left who wins the house and a cash prize of ‚1 million. And because, apart from leaving voluntarily or being evicted (which is voted on by the housemates themselves), only violent conduct will guarantee that they are removed, the contestants are free to do whatever they like to drive their housemates to despair and make them leave.

So because the villa was more or less a rule free zone, the show was full of loveless rutting, constant arguing, and the use of prostitutes as the contestants plunged into a free-for-all of undermining each other in every conceivable way that didn't involve punching each other's lights out. In the end it's really just a battle of wills between a group of rich people where the route to success is being more of an inconsiderate jackass than everyone else so that they'll be driven to breaking point and rage quit. It's trolling made flesh.