BROADCASTERS are heading towards an inevitable tragedy unless they immediately screen all rejected reality show contestants for "post-celebrity trauma", one of the UK's leading experts on media psychology said last night.
Dr David Holmes,who has advised the makers of Big Brother and other reality TV programmes on the suitability of contestants, accused some firms of using people with "borderline personalities" for entertainment, dumping them and leaving them at risk o
f depression, self-harm and even suicide.
Holmes revealed that his own advice to programme makers not to use certain contestants had on occasions been ignored and said he was aware of one rejected reality TV contestant who needed hospital treatment following a show.
Holmes, a senior psychology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, spoke out after it emerged an American woman had committed suicide near the Los Angeles home of singer and American Idol judge Paula Abdul, three years after she was unceremoniously dumped from the show.
Meanwhile, millions of British viewers are expected to tune in tonight for the new series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, while the current series of The X Factor has already resulted in controversy over the decision to vote off some of the most popular contestants.
As well as Big Brother, Holmes has advised TV producers on the suitability of participants for I'm A Celebrity... as well as BBC documentaries about stalkers and murderers.
He told Scotland on Sunday reality show contestants were "not quite normal" for about a year afterwards. "When you have built somebody up into this situation and wound up the tension in the contestants so they are more nervous, there is quite a psychological process going on," he said.
"If you are going to spend all that time winding someone up, why not invest a little bit afterwards by having a few people that they can talk to? There need to be compulsory check-ups with someone privately."
He added: "They have a kind of 'post-celebrity trauma', which is like post-traumatic syndrome that people suffer after major disasters. If you are a depressive or prone to suicidal thoughts or self-harm, it may precipitate in the aftermath.
"As producers take more chances to get more interesting TV, they are running a higher risk of someone having a really bad effect. It's inevitable that something will slip through."
He added that producers were more interested in audience figures than contestants' welfare. Holmes said: "One of the major things they screen for beforehand is instability, but people with borderline disorders tend to gravitate towards these programmes and the makers like them because they generate disaster and emotional outpourings.
"One guy sought help and ended up being hospitalised after a period on a reality show a few years ago. He was not particularly popular and felt people had the wrong idea of him, and it had a profound psychological effect on him.
"We don't know how many people this is happening to because there is no way of monitoring them."
Paula Goodspeed, a 30-year-old contestant on US talent show American Idol, was found dead on Tuesday after apparently committing suicide in a car yards from the home of Abdul, whom she adored. Goodspeed, from Texas, had braces on her teeth and was ridiculed by Abdul's fellow judge Simon Cowell when she got to the third round of the programme.
A spokeswoman for Big Brother said: "All housemates are vetted by two psychologists prior to entering the house and they have access to (a] psychologist throughout the show and are offered psychological support once they leave."
A spokeswoman for the BBC said talent shows like I'd Do Anything and Any Dream Will Do had "robust" aftercare procedures.
She said:
"If at any point during or after the programme is on air the production have any major concerns about a contestant, professional counselling and advice is offered."
ITV said celebrities on I'm A Celebrity saw a psychiatrist immediately after the show.
The full article contains 672 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
