This is the moment Sky’s cruel dating show collapsed when six male contestants were told they had been secretly dating a transgender woman for weeks.
The 2003 British Sky1 reality series ‘There’s Something About Miriam’ took the boys to a luxurious four-star villa in Ibiza, with the aim of wooing stunning Mexican model Miriam Rivera, then just 21, for a £10,000 prize and a romantic yacht. journey.
However, the show’s punchline was incredibly cruel. After Miriam chose her winner, she told the unsuspecting contestants that she was a transgender woman who had not undergone gender-affirming surgery.
Channel 4’s new series Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star explores the consequences of the producers’ decision to exploit children and Miriam’s identity for shock value.
The second episode of the show, titled ‘The Truth’, airs on Tuesday night and shows the moment the producers have been waiting for – when they finally told the truth to winner Tom Rooke.
This is the moment Tom Rooke, the winner of There’s Something About Miriam, was told he was actually transgender
Miriam Rivera, then 21 years old, was only allowed to reveal her identity after the winner was chosen.
But the naive producers had underestimated the boys’ sheer anger when they realized they had been lied to and the emotional damage it would cause them.
After choosing Tom, then 23, as her winner, Miriam told the boys: ‘I tried to be honest with you all as much as I could. Yes, I am from Mexico, I am a model and I am 21 years old.
‘But, Tom, I really love spending time with you. I love men and I love being a woman. But I’m not a woman, I was born a man.’
His words, which his friends believe were written by the television crew, were initially greeted with laughter from the other five children and pure surprise from Tom.
On the reality show, described as “the most explosive dating experience of my life”, Tom had gotten close to Miriam and had even been filmed getting intimate with her and kissing her passionately.
He was speechless but couldn’t contain his surprise when his eyebrows rose in disbelief and he began scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably.
Team member Leo McCrea recalled in the documentary: “It was incredibly uncomfortable. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room.
“And Tom, he was panting and looking around at the whole deception.”
The other boys started laughing in the background while Tom was shocked.
Tom (pictured) said he felt cheated and although he initially accepted the prize money and yacht trip, he later turned it down before the show aired.
But when the news came, the boys were angry at the deception and launched a lawsuit against the program.
Although Tom initially said he would still go on the yacht trip because “we’re all good friends here,” a behind-the-scenes interview revealed his true thoughts.
Speaking to the camera, he said: “I’m very surprised and I wouldn’t want to spend a week on a boat with someone I didn’t trust and who cheated on me.
‘I was being honest in that house, and he (speaking of Miriam) was not. He was lying to everyone and he doesn’t have that right.
After the initial shock, the boys became angry. Former contestant Toby Green recalled that runner-up Scott Gibson “went crazy” and soon things began to “get out of hand.”
Scott, a martial arts instructor, began vandalizing the setup and even chased the director around the pool.
When psychiatrist Dr Gareth Smith spoke to the children to try to calm them down, they chillingly blamed Miriam rather than the production team. At one point, Dr. Smith even recalled one of them saying, “I’m going to kill her.”
Tom, who was an actor, was worried about how the show would affect his career and reportedly told Gareth: “I can’t be a gay actor.”
The producers had employed a number of underhanded tactics to trick the boys, including offering them an indecipherable contract, deliberately avoiding the use of pronouns, and even eliminating contestants if they began to suspect the truth. As a result, the boys were furious.
New Channel 4 documentary Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star explores her life and rise to fame in more detail
Psychiatrist Dr Gareth Smith said the children even wanted to “kill” Miriam.
The contestants were flown back to London, where they decided to file a court order to prevent the show from airing.
The men alleged conspiracy to commit sexual assault, defamation, breach of contract and personal injury in the form of psychological and emotional harm.
They eventually settled for an undisclosed amount and the show aired the following year. The huge scandal reportedly cost Sky TV three quarters of a million pounds, the documentary claims.
But the producers’ naivety was also demonstrated in their treatment of Miriam herself, who tragically died in 2019, which Mexican authorities considered a “suicide,” although her husband has always insisted that she was murdered.
Unlike the children, who were brought in a psychiatrist, Miriam received no support despite coming out and receiving a torrent of abuse.
His words after the finale was filmed reveal how vulnerable he felt at the time.
She said: ‘I went back to the hotel and was shaking from the experience. I didn’t know if they were going to punch me or attack me.
‘I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. No one on the crew wanted to talk to me. They were all my friends during filming and now they don’t want to meet me. I feel really upset and alone.’
Dr Smith, who was hired to offer support to the children, reflected: ‘Apparently I had been hired to look after the children.
Aron Lane (pictured in the documentary) was a contestant on the show. He saw an ad in the Metro newspaper that said, ‘Do you want to appear on a dating show?’
Toby Green was also on the show but ended up leaving after expressing his suspicions about Miriam.
Miriam was known as the “world’s first transgender reality star” and appeared on Big Brother Australia.
“No one had thought about how Miriam might feel. Her coming out was her coming out to the world and, as far as I knew, Miriam had not undergone psychological testing.
‘How would you deal with rejection? Not just who he chose, but everyone who thought trans people were monsters.
‘They sold him a dream without anyone telling him what could go wrong. I thought, she’s vulnerable, she’s had a really hard life, like a bird with a broken wing.
Miriam was already in a vulnerable position when the show was filmed in 2003, when she was 21 years old. She had started taking hormones at age 11 and was already living as a woman when she was 16.
But his father Fernando Mendoza never accepted his identity, and even brought a minister to the family home to “exorcise” the “demons” from his body.
Traumatized by the ordeal, Miriam fled to Tijuana, on the US-Mexico border, where she began working at a club.
Even though Miriam was clearly vulnerable, the television executives who worked on There’s Something About Miriam continue to defend their decisions in the Channel 4 documentary.
When asked how he felt about the hoax, production executive Jo Josun said: “I didn’t feel anything. I’m in the business of making TV shows.
‘I didn’t feel anything about the format that felt bad or wrong. I didn’t feel that way, not really.
‘Do I think it went beyond any moral code of conduct? No.’
Sky later removed There’s Something About Miriam from its platforms and apologized.
There’s Something About Miriam has been widely described as “cruel” and “exploitative”, and a similar format has yet to be reproduced anywhere in the world. Miriam photographed in 2004
And speaking of Miriam, he added: ‘The whole premise of the show was reaction… that’s just the nature of television programming.
‘The idea that this poor young woman was taken from Mexico and thrown into this situation…she was a smart, clever woman. She knew exactly what she was getting herself into and why, and she wanted to be a part of it.”
The show’s executive producer, Remy Blumenfeld of Brighter Pictures, admitted in a 2022 interview: “I don’t feel like I was cruel in doing it. I feel like I was incredibly naive. “Our intention for the program was for viewers to watch it and identify with Miriam’s story.”
Banijay, which acquired Endemol in 2020, said in a statement published on the show: ‘Benijay does not in any way support the editorial concept or production processes of the show.
‘We defend inclusion and prioritize well-being. The management responsible for this show no longer works with the company.
Sky later apologized and removed There’s Something About Miriam from her platforms.
‘The Truth’, the second episode of Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
