The French reality TV show that led to the tragic death of two participants
Even the most intense reality TV shows aren’t supposed to put anyone at risk of death, with a team of professionals tied to the production tasked to ensure that the well-being of those taking part is always at the forefront of everybody’s thinking.
The long-running Survivor is one of the most exacting and exhausting examples there is, with the entire concept focusing on a group of people being left to fend for themselves on a deserted island. There’s no way to safeguard against accidents with any degree of certainty, but one edition of the series ended up causing two deaths.
On the very first day of filming on Koh-Lanta – the French version of Survivor – in 2013, contestant Gerald Babin suffered a fatal cardiac arrest after the participants jumped from a boat and then immediately engaged in a heated tug of war. Babin complained of cramps in his arms and was treated at the scene by the show’s medical personnel, but he suffered further cardiac arrests while being airlifted to a nearby hospital and died in transit.
Home channel TF1 and production company Adventure Line Productions then immediately cancelled the rest of the season, sharing a statement on the incident, per The Hollywood Reporter. “Adventure Line Productions, TF1 and Denis Broginart are devastated and join in the profound sadness of Gerald’s family,” with the decision to abandon the rest of shooting and fly everybody home “not really a question”.
Unfortunately, the tragedy didn’t end there, with Dr Thierry Costa taking his own life in the days after the incident and blaming the press intrusion and scrutiny surrounding his perceived role in Babin’s death as the catalyst for his decision. Costa, TF1, and Adventure Line had all been accused of negligence, and while it was restricted solely to the realms of unfounded speculation, the doctor took his own life regardless.
A note discovered in the hotel where the production team were staying referenced how “unjust accusations and assumptions were uttered against me,” with Costa stating how “having to rebuild this destroyed reputation seems unbearable to me”. Adventure Line was forced into releasing another statement, this one espousing how the second major death to have befallen Koh-Lanta in such a short space of time “must push those who irresponsibly accused and commented to come out and take accountability”.
Koh-Lanta would return to the airwaves the following year and run for another 11 seasons, and it’s still a popular series today despite having such a dark shadow cast over it. There’s no way to guarantee with the utmost certainty that things can’t or won’t go wrong during the production of such a physically taxing show, but two deaths in a single season stemming from the same event sent shockwaves throughout France.
