De Grote Donorshow

De Grote Donorshow The Big Donor Show
The Big Donor Show logo (note the "o"'s substitution by the logo of the Dutch Kidney Foundation)
Genre	Reality television
Created by	Endemol
Presented by	Patrick Lodiers
Country of origin	Netherlands
Original language(s)	Dutch
Production
Producer(s)	Endemol
Location(s)	Aalsmeer
Release
Original network	Nederland 3 (via BNN)
External links
Website

De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) was a reality television program which was broadcast in the Netherlands on Friday, June 1, 2007, by BNN. The program involved a supposedly terminally ill 37-year-old woman donating a kidney to one of twenty-five people requiring a kidney transplantation. After a first selection, three people remained. Viewers were able to send advice on whom they thought she should choose to give her kidney to via text messages. The profit made by the text messages was given to the Dutch Kidney Foundation. The program, due to its controversial nature, had received heavy international criticism in the run-up to the broadcast. In the end, it was revealed during the course of the show that the "terminally ill" woman was, in reality, an actress, although the three candidates were, in fact, real kidney patients; they were aware that Lisa was an actress, and participated because they were supportive of BNN's cause to give awareness to the limited number of organ donors in the Netherlands.

In a press statement after the show, Paul Römer, the director of the program's creator Endemol, stated that the show was necessary in order to get the shortage of donors back on the political agenda.

Bart de Graaff, the BNN founder who died in May 2002 (almost exactly 5 years before the broadcast of the show), obtained a donor kidney in 1997. De Graaff had renal failure stemming from a car accident in his youth. The studio from which the show was aired contained photos of him, as seen in the adjacent picture. It has been claimed that De Graaff was BNN's source of inspiration for the show, both by the show's host, Lodiers, as well as in the post-broadcast press release.

Joop Atsma, a member of the House of Representatives for the Christian Democratic Appeal, had attempted to censor the show. Dutch culture minister Ronald Plasterk, citing Dutch law, refused to prohibit the television program, although he found the program to be unethical due to its competitive element. Before the show aired, the Dutch Kidney Foundation told a reporter "they welcomed all the attention the show had brought on the subject" but also stated that "their way of doing it is not ours, and it will bring no practical solution". In a press statement, the foundation also stated that they had asked BNN to cease using their logo in The Big Donor Show's logo (note the icon of a kidney instead of an "o" in the logo, as seen at the top right of the page), for which BNN had never asked permission. The Dutch prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, had expressed his concerns for what he believed would damage the reputation of the Netherlands.