Not Fade Away

In an effort to one-up the Fox network, the BBC is searching for “contestants” for its new reality show Dust to Dust, which Fox would have obviously called My Big Fat Obnoxious and Maggoty Corpse. People are dying to be on the show, for as the BBC claims, “Channel 4 is searching for volunteers to take part in a documentary which will show the decomposition of their bodies when they die. The documentary, the first of its kind in the UK, will be produced in conjunction with London’s Science Museum and supervised by scientists. The experiment will need the full consent of the donor and their family.” That last sentence is a relief—god forbid one of the contestants was “just sleeping” like Yasser Arafat.

The BBC's interest in deathly things might account for how much they like broadcasting shows featuring Professor Gunther von Hagens (check out his creepy skull-like photo), who prefers to chop up dead things rather than watch them rot. After all, von Hagens pulled this really cool trick once.

The BBC did not make it clear why it needed to broadcast the slow decomposition of a dead thing when TV has already witnessed the last 23 years of Saturday Night Live.

NBC is reportedly in negotiations with the BBC to buy the last remnants of the subjects from Dust to Dust, hoping to use them as a food challenge on Fear Factor.