This is Hannah Wright.

And this is Mauna D'il Sheik.

And you are listening to you.

You could do that on television.

The podcast about early 2000 reality TV and all the shows that you can't make today.

Exactly.

And today we are talking about the show, The Swan, that you may remember from

2004. There were two seasons of it total, but all of it happened in the year 2004. I guess

they were quick seasons. And the show was truly insane.

Yeah, it got a lot of reviews.

I'm going to read one of them right now just before we get into the show.

And it says it is the most sadistic reality series of the decade.

Yes, yes.

And people call it horrible, hurtful, anything you can imagine. And I agree. So, okay, so the premise of the show, if you don't recall, was each episode there's two women and who have signed up to be on the show. And a team of various doctors and surgeons meet and discuss what plastic surgery they believe this average looking woman slash ugly duckling, as they say, needs in order to become a beauty queen.

And these women are completely secluded from society, their families, anyone for three whole months, like in a hotel room with like no outside contact of the world and no mirrors.

So they can't see themselves at all for three months while they're getting plastic surgeries, going to the gym, blah, blah, blah.

And then at the end, you see both of their transformations and then judges, like mystery judges that we never see, decide which of those women is beautiful, has become beautiful enough to go on to be in a pageant.

Yeah.

Which then at the very end of the season, they make all those winners compete against each other to see who is the swan.

Yes.

And you know what?

All of these doctors together, like when they talk and when they clap for the contestants,

...