spath - // I'm a celeb gets a HUGE global audience. It is not dieing out, and the trials are not getting easier. //
It does, and that says something rather sad about the modern psyche.
I remember UK TV audiences being amazed and appalled in equal measure when the wonderful Clive James brought us Endurance, a Japanese game show in which volunteers were subjected to various 'trials'.
As a viewing nation we were aghast that such thing could be served up as entertainment, but we put it down to a fundamental psychological difference in the national temperament - the Japanese can and do enjoy random cruelty as entertainment, as the popularity of this show demonstrated, but we, as Westerners, were seen to be frankly above such base and horrible attitudes conjured up to amuse armchair sadists.
And now look where we are … I honestly believe it should not be encouraged - it demonstrates that suffering, human and animal, is acceptable if it entertains people, and I believe that is immoral.