Robinson with lemon

In America they give a million to someone who can survive on cockroaches for more than a month.

39-year-old American HR specialist Richard Hatch chose probably the most unusual way to earn a million dollars. To do this, he had to spend almost 40 days on an uninhabited Malaysian island with a tropical climate, eating cockroaches and rats, competing with 15 other “lucky” people in various survival competitions. Richard, who passed all the tests with honor, eventually received a million from the CBS television company: the Robinsons were filmed, the multi-part new program “Survivor” became one of the most popular television shows.

Although TV viewers learned the name of the winner just the other day, in fact, Hutch received his million quite a long time ago: the show was broadcast in recording. In mid-June, viewers of the most popular American television channel saw for the first time the faces of 16 future Robinsons, carefully selected from 6 thousand. The list of participants was drawn up in an American politically correct way: there was room for national minorities, homosexuals, and even those over 60 (one was 72).

Half of America followed the further development of events. Having landed on a tropical island (you could only take one luxury item with you - many considered the Bible to be such), the 16 participants were divided into two “tribes” of 8 people each. Every three days, the teams met face to face to take part in a competition: swim across a river with a burning torch in hand, climb a hot volcano, eat fried cockroaches, etc. The losing “tribe” immediately lost one person, the name of the unfortunate person was determined by voting by the team itself at the evening fire. When ten Robinsons remained, the competition went to the individual competition. After each competition, all the participants gathered around the fire to send one of the losers home. The final, which included 23-year-old rafting instructor Kelly Wiglesword and 39-year-old Richard Hatch, was judged by those loser Robinsons whom their colleagues had thrown off the island earlier. Hutch won.

It is unlikely that CBS made a mistake by paying out a million. Only the two-hour finale of the show was watched by 40 million people; a 30-second advertising block during the program cost $600 thousand. And 50 thousand applications have already been submitted to participate in the game “Survivor 2”, which will take place at the end of the year.

The million received by homosexual Richard Hutch allowed him to renovate his house, but did not save him from domestic problems. His own ten-year-old son complained to the police that his dad once grabbed his ear too hard. Police are investigating for second-degree child abuse. Hutch countersued for defamation and estimates moral damages at another $1 million. Richard now has a chance to prove that he can navigate the concrete jungle no worse than the tropical ones.

Evgeny ANTONOV