Shattered (2004) User Reviews

It really wasn't that bad!

[friskysquirt · 7/10 · 12 July 2009]

The programme Shattered was a spin-off from Big Brother. But if you look at how Big Brother has turned out today then you might well look back and realise that Shattered really wasn't as bad as some people say.

Yes, it included tasks which were designed to make the contestants feel worse. Yes it allowed them a certain amount of sleep each day.

Me though, I didn't watch it because I wanted to see people suffering, the same way I didn't watch Big Brother originally because I wanted to see some idiot doing unusual things with a wine bottle. I watched it because I studied human psychology and I wanted to see how ordinary people (and they were ordinary back then!) coped under adverse psychological conditions.

Shattered presented some fascinating insights into how the human brain acts under severe sleep deprivation. And it is a study which is not likely to be shown to the viewing public again in a long time.

The programme was stupidly sensationalist, yes. But it was also fascinating too. It was probably only entertaining to those who thought the original idea of Big Brother was fascinating, watching how people really do act and cope without trying to entertain the Hello reading masses.

This Show Is A Fraud

[Theo Robertson · 12 February 2004]

Late last year I saw the trailers for an endurance show where the contestants had to stay awake for a whole week with the winner collecting £100,000 . Having endured many a sleepless week due to pond life neighbours I knew what was involved and didn't begrudge the future winner a single penny but did feel very sympathetic towards the other people who would have to stay awake for a whole week and not get a penny . Boy were their lives gonna be a living hell , a literal waking nightmare . There's no way I was going to volunteer for this show because I'd experienced it myself and still have nightmares about it but there's no way I was going to not watch it either

So SHATTERED was broadcast at the start of January and the contestants were introduced . As with all these shows most of the contestants were all middle class 20 somethings with full heads of hair , perfect teeth and happy go lucky personalities which meant right away I was going to dislike them , great because I was going to see them suffer . Presenter Dermot O Leary pointed out they'd not been to bed for the last 36 hours and were tasked to putting peas into a large jar one by one then after they'd done that mind numbing concentration sapping task they had to guess how many peas they'd put into the jar with the person making the least accurate guess being eliminated . So far so good but what was actually revealed by the second day of this contest is that the contestants are allowed TWO HOURS SLEEP EACH DAY ! This was never pointed out in the application trailers , it was also never pointed out in the production trailers and it was very very downplayed during the show's broadcast . It's is possible to do tasks over a limited period on two hours sleep a day and staying awake for seven days on two hours sleep a day is entirely different from staying awake for seven consecutive days with no sleep whatsoever . Despite all the hype this show is something of a fraud and I hope the format is never brought back

Just for the record SHATTERED was won by a young trainee police woman . I had my money on the shrink winning since most young doctors are used to going without sleep . In fact two hours of sleep a day is something of a long lie in for many of them

The MrBeast of 2004!

[10086cn · 8/10 · 25 April 2019]

Think about it! Shattered is like a challenge from MrBeast on YouTube from 2004! The rules, amount of prize fund, the "You Snooze You Lose" which makes things even more difficult, even what the challenge is about, doesn't it make you think of MrBeast if you watch it these days in 2019? There's a lot of similarities here!

Anyway, the hour of sleep a day is quite disappointing actually. This show would have been more interesting if they didn't allow that.

Doesn't even do what it says it will - yet another poor reality show

[bob the moo · 21 March 2004]

A group of people enter a controlled flat as part of a game show and experiment. The experiment part is that none of them will be allowed to fall asleep until the end of the week. Each day they will be asked to perform tasks to determine the impact on their abilities of lack of sleep. Those that perform the worst have to do another task - the loser of which is ejected from the house. One person will win £100,000 if they manage to hold on till the end.

Billed as some sort of worthy Big Brother twist, this game show had no redeeming features and really just copies all the other reality game shows but adds a little twist. However, in this case the twist isn't even true - the contestants were actually allowed a couple of hours sleep each day for health reasons; so, basically, the show's only unique element is actually a con. Of course, the whole point of this is not to conduct an experiment but is more a way to make the contestant fight! In every other show they have done different things to try and kick it off - BB uses drink and `treats' to try and both create fights and divisions or to get some sex going on. Shatter just took this concept and based a show on it.

It didn't really work of course - there were a few quarrels that were like the `leave it Billy he's not worth it' type that you get in small pubs near closing time but really there was nothing that interesting. The fact that all the contestants were the usual nondescript people that you might call `mate' in the pub but would never really want to befriend, doesn't help matters. Usually the tabloids adopt reality show contestants as celebrities and good gossip, but with Shattered they didn't bother - I doubt even a big fan of the show could now name all the contestants - or even half of them!

As host, Dermot O'Leary has experience of mocking, tongue in cheek humour at the expense of the show - he did it on Big Brother's Little Brother quite well; however here he is awful. Instead of having a touch of humour, he speaks constantly in hushed reverent tones as if we are witnessing something that will soon be up for a Nobel prize! He is about as bad a presenter here as you could imagine - and I've seen Richard Bacon!

Overall, a rubbish show that is just cruel and stupid: one task tested memory by having contestants work though a chain of doors three at a time (always 2 locked and 1 open); not cruel enough? The locked doors gave out electric shocks! The twist that it is based on is not even delivered properly and all in all it was as dull as you can imagine.