Good evening
Back in the day of BBC1, BBC2 and ITV as the only channels I agree that this would have been a non starter.
But a well funded organization that can stream the show doesn't need a broadcast contract especially if they can find advertisers for background hoardings, title sponsorship etc.
Competitors would be easy to find, especially if there was prize money a long down from the winner, for example £10k for 100 place. This could form the basis for making
events involving 40th-50th places meaningful, especially if there was some form of category system that involved promotion and relegation.
Is there a significant audience that would tolerate the number of deaths that would follow from an anything goes policy. I suspect that there is as long as the number of deaths on screen was tiny, look at the audience for boxing.
Who would advertise? Anyone who can spin off a brand, Do you drink Macho lager or Splash down with Fresh Blood after shave. The products could be made on the same production lines as say Carling and Brut 33, as long as the brands were different.
In the UK, Europe and USA there may be a lot of hypocrisy and 10 million actual viewers whilst market research saying that nobody watches it, but that wouldn't be true everywhere.
Go one, admit it, :-) there is something appealing about completive events where it is impossible to cheat, because everything is allowed.
Body building has had a natural category for a long time and as far as I can tell it has good intentions. But there a people who enter the natural events whilst taking substances banned by the natural rules but considered fine by other events. It is much easier to win a natural event if you ignore the rules that were created as a defining principle of the movement.
Bye
Ian
)
