''Dumped'' is a British reality television programme which started on 2 September 2007 and aired nightly until 5 September 2007 on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. It involved 11 contestants living for three weeks on a rubbish dump next to a

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

site near

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

in South London. The contestants who "survived" the 21 days and used only what they found on the dump were awarded £20,000 to share equally between them. The

working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...

of the programme was ''Eco-Challenge''. One contestant, Darren Lumsden, voluntarily left the programme on Day 3. The series was promoted with a large publicity campaign, which included advertisements on websites and a concert by the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

. The programme achieved a peak of 2.4 million viewers, although this was marginally less than the number of people watching other channels at the same time. The programme was criticised because it was filmed on an artificial landfill and for its choice of "fame hungry" contestants.

Production and format

''Dumped'', which was filmed in June 2006, was initially scheduled for

's Spring 2007 line-up. However, this did not occur and the programme was then postponed until the start the channel's period of "creative renewal", which was established due to the racism controversy that occurred during the fifth series of ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Celebrity Big Brother'' or ''Big Brother VIP'' is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, t ...

'' in January 2007. 11 participants, who were not initially informed of their task, must live on a purpose-made rubbish dump adjacent to a working

site for 21 days after being left equipped only with a sleeping bag, drinking can and one roll of lavatory paper each. Rob Holdway, director of environmental consultancy Giraffe Innovation, presented the programme and set the contestants regular challenges. The participants had to wear

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as ...

gloves, protective boots and face masks when working on the real landfill site. Every person working on the programme was given

tetanus Tetanus (), also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'' and characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually l ...

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

and

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver parenchyma, liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), Anorexia (symptom), poor appetite ...

vaccinations for their safety.

Contestants

The 11 contestants who participated "represented the complete spectrum of public opinion on environmental issues". Potential participants were not told that the programme would involve living on a landfill, but were instead told that they would be part of "a unique eco-challenge". One participant, Darren Lumsden, voluntarily left the programme after just three days, claiming that the experience had taught him nothing, though years later he would turn up on another reality TV show called The Chop (in October 2020).

Pre-series publicity

Described as

's "biggest marketing campaigns of the year", ''Dumped'' was promoted via various methods. Advertisements for the programme appeared on websites such as ''

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a popular science magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organ ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and ''

MSN MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...

''. Television adverts, using the 1998 single " Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by

Mercury Rev Mercury Rev is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York,
with bathing Bathing is the immersion of the body, wholly or partially, usually in water, but often in another medium such as hot air. It is most commonly practised as part of personal cleansing, and less frequently for relaxation or as a leisure activity. ...

whilst on the landfill. Posters featuring the programme's tagline, "Living off the landfill", were displayed across Britain and others appeared on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

. Some

bus shelters A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger inf ...

within London featured posters which were made out of rubbish, and 2 September 2007 edition of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' featured a biodegradable bag wrap to promote the programme. Eight members of the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

performed

Land of Hope and Glory "Land of Hope and Glory" is a British patriotic song, with music by Edward Elgar, written in 1901 and with lyrics by A. C. Benson added in 1902. Composition The music to which the words of the refrain 'Land of Hope and Glory, &c' below ...

on the landfill site that the programme was filmed, using instruments that had been made out of waste.

Episode breakdown

Reaction

Viewing figures

Dumped received relatively low viewing figures for a

peak time ''Peak Time'' () is a 2023 South Korean reality competition show. It aired on JTBC from February 15 to April 19, 2023, every Wednesday at 20:50 ( KST) for the first two episodes before it changed to 22:30 (KST) from the third episode onwards. It ...

programme on a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

channel. The first episode of the programme received just 2.4 million viewers, 10% of the audience, compared to the television premiere of '' The Queen'' on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 ...

which was watched by an average of 7.9 million people and attracted a 36% audience share. ''

Coming Down the Mountain ''Coming Down the Mountain'' is a 2007 British television film which was shown on BBC One, written by Mark Haddon (author of ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'') and directed by Julie Anne Robinson. The television film was ba ...

'', also airing at the same time on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

, was watched by 4.7 million and a 20% share. The second episode was watched by 1.7 million, compared to the 3.6 million that watched the opening episode of the third series of ITV1's ''

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

''. The penultimate episode was viewed by 1.5 million viewers and had a 7% audience share, while ''Hell's Kitchen'' received 3.4 million viewers and a 15% audience share. The final episode of the programme attracted 1.9 million viewers and an audience share of 8%, while 4.2 million viewed ''Hell's Kitchen'', a 19% audience share. Both programmes were beaten in their slot by BBC One's ''

Traffic Cops ''Traffic Cops'' is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 5, following Roads Policing Units from various UK police forces. It has consistently been one of the most watched factual series on UK television. The series is currentl ...

'', which attracted 5.5 million and a 25% share of the audience.

Reviews

''Dumped'' was met with a mixed reaction from critics. James Walton, of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'', was critical of the programme and its purpose; on Darren's departure, he said: "According to the narrator, this proved that Darren “didn’t understand” the experiment. Another interpretation, of course, would be that he did." ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' criticised the programme for setting the programme in an artificial rubbish dump for

health and safety Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work (i.e., while performing duties required by one's occupation). OSH is re ...

reasons, comparing it to various fakery scandals that had taken place in the programme ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' in the past year. However, Nigel Kendall of the same newspaper called the programme "entertaining" and its contestants "likeable", while Paul Hoggart said that it gets its point across. Website ''TV Scoop'' said that the programme was "a great experiment", but did not approve of the inclusion of "fame hungry" participants and compared the programme to the most recent series of '' Big Brother''. The website Hecklerspray gave the programme a negative review, calling the participants "absolute fucking morons", and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

gave the programme 3 out of 5 stars.

controller Julian Bellamy commented on the programme's failure during Edinburgh Television Festival 2008, saying that it "didn't have the human narrative you need" and that it was "a little bit too like other reality shows".

References

External links

Dumped
at Channel4.com * {{Use dmy dates, date=January 2020 Channel 4 reality television shows 2000s British reality television series 2007 British television series debuts 2007 British television series endings British English-language television shows