UK "Space cadets" taken in by TV hoax

Space cadets taken in by TV hoax

BBC News - Saturday, 17 December 2005, 12:48 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4537748.stm

Three contestants have spoken of their disbelief after being fooled
into thinking they went into space for the UK reality show Space
Cadets.

The three believed they had blasted off from a cosmonaut training camp
in Russia, but were in fact in a fake spaceship in a warehouse in
Suffolk.

They cheered up when told they had each won £25,000 ($44,300).

But one contestant, teaching assistant Keri Hasset from Birmingham,
said she was "heartbroken" by the prank.

Fake ceremony

"When I thought we were coming back to Earth I was planning my speech.
I was going to say it had been my childhood dream. Now I'm a little bit
heartbroken," she said.

Ms Hasset, plasterer Paul French, 26 from Bristol, and
footballer/recruitment consultant Billy Jackson, 25, from Kent, had
suspicions they were being tricked when they had to hold a ceremony for
a celebrity Russian dog called Mr Bimby on the spaceship.

"This is a spacecraft but it feels like a caravan," Paul told his
fellow astronauts.

"And if we were going to space and they were weighing us for our
health, they wouldn't use scales like you get at home, would they?"

On discovering the show was a fake, Billy told Channel 4: "My mum and
dad are gonna love this.

"This is the biggest wind-up ever. This is wicked."

"Aw man," said Paul. "We're not astronauts. We're just asses."

The show, presented by Johnny Vaughan, built a full-scale replica of a
Russian space training camp in a disused hangar near Ipswich.

The ten original contestants had been whittled down to three over the
course of two weeks, with the winners believing they were becoming
Britain's first space tourists.

Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.

Spoof show 'astronauts' revealed

BBC News - 7 December 2005, 09:43 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4505956.stm


The nine contestants in a Channel 4 reality TV show aimed at tricking
them into thinking they have been launched into space have been
unveiled.

Space Cadets involves the group being told they are to visit space
thanks to a Russian tourism agency.

The group, aged between 19 and 28, include a student, a call centre
worker and an electrician. Contestants have been picked for their
suggestibility.

Channel 4 admitted the joke could be on them if the participants cotton
on.

Unbeknown to the contestants, the shuttle will be a Hollywood creation,
made originally for the Clint Eastwood film Space Cowboys.

Special effects

The producers must also persuade the participants that the disused UK
base where they are being "trained" for space, is actually Russia's
Space Tourism Agency.

A custom-built screen just outside the shuttle will attempt to provide
the illusion of a view of Earth and sounds will be created by special
effects experts.

However, producers will not have to recreate weightlessness because the
contestants are to be told their orbit will take them to Near Space,
not Deep Space, where they could experience the sensation.

The 10-day series, which is on at 2100 GMT, is presented by Johnny
Vaughan and has been created by Endemol, the firm behind Big Brother.

'Big risk'

Some of the contestants are self-confessed pranksters, and TV
executives will be hoping that they will see the funny side when the
show concludes.

Three of the space cadets are actors pretending to be thrill-seeking
contestants.

At the end of the training period, one of the actors will be chosen,
along with three genuine contestants, to "blast off" in the shuttle.

Channel 4's factual entertainment commissioning editor Angela Jain has
admitted that "a big risk" had been taken with the show, adding: "We
don't know who will have the last laugh".

On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty" wrote:


"And if we were going to space and they were weighing us for our
health, they wouldn't use scales like you get at home, would they?"

Gee, ya think???

"Aw man," said Paul. "We're not astronauts. We're just asses."

Nah, not _just_ asses- totally ignorant asses

Dale

On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty"
wrote:

Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.

....FYI, I have requested that someone in Englandland who capped this
mess post it on a.b.multimedia.comedy, or some related group. It
really sounds too stupid to miss.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

OM wrote:
On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty"
wrote:

Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.

...FYI, I have requested that someone in Englandland who capped this
mess post it on a.b.multimedia.comedy, or some related group. It
really sounds too stupid to miss.

OM



I haven't viewed them yet, but it appears the UK Channel 4 website has
some video
clips from the shows:

http://www.channel4.com/entertainmen...ideo/index.jsp


Rusty

OM wrote:

On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty"
wrote:


Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.


...FYI, I have requested that someone in Englandland who capped this
mess post it on a.b.multimedia.comedy, or some related group. It
really sounds too stupid to miss.

I was rather disappointed to get this news -- not just because of yet
one more "reality" TV premise more crass than that last, but because of
the fact someone besides Americans would be stupid enough to be taken in
by it.

--

..

"Though I could not caution all, I yet may warn a few:
Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools!"

--grateful dead.
__________________________________________________ _____________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
"Mikey'zine": dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

I only caught a bit of this - it was truly awful.

So awful that there is some discussion as to whether this was actually a
double-bluff, and that all the "contestants" were actually actors and in on
the thing from day one.

"mike flugennock" wrote in message
ervers.com...
I was rather disappointed to get this news -- not just because of yet one
more "reality" TV premise more crass than that last, but because of the
fact someone besides Americans would be stupid enough to be taken in by
it.

mike flugennock wrote:
OM wrote:

On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty"
wrote:


Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.


...FYI, I have requested that someone in Englandland who capped this
mess post it on a.b.multimedia.comedy, or some related group. It
really sounds too stupid to miss.

I was rather disappointed to get this news -- not just because of yet
one more "reality" TV premise more crass than that last, but because of
the fact someone besides Americans would be stupid enough to be taken in
by it.



You know the "we never went to the moon" crowd are going to take this
one step further.

They will say Armstrong and Aldrin didn't know they were in an old
hanger in Nevada and Collins must have been circling overhead in the
Vomit Comet.

;-)

Rusty

"mike flugennock" wrote in message
ervers.com...
OM wrote:

On 17 Dec 2005 16:10:50 -0800, "Rusty"
wrote:


Channel 4 invested millions in the hoax but viewing figures slipped
during the series.


...FYI, I have requested that someone in Englandland who capped this
mess post it on a.b.multimedia.comedy, or some related group. It
really sounds too stupid to miss.

I was rather disappointed to get this news -- not just because of yet
one more "reality" TV premise more crass than that last, but because of
the fact someone besides Americans would be stupid enough to be taken in
by it.


The are gullible people everywhere. For example, there are probably a few
people left in this newsgroup that think OM is real.

On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 19:09:08 GMT, "Ten Quidado"
wrote:

The are gullible people everywhere. For example, there are probably a few
people left in this newsgroup that think OM is real.

....Just for that, I'm making sure Santa Claus *and* Hannukah Harry
don't bring you jack **** for Chrisnukkah. I'm having dinner with both
of them this evening over how to outmarket Ramadan Ramin and his three
flying camels.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[