Variety- The contestants of a British reality show that marooned them in the wilderness for a year as a social experiment have returned to civilization — only to discover the series was taken off air several months ago and no one bothered to tell them.

The Channel 4 program, “Eden,” assembled 23 men and women and dispatched them to a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands, where they were told to set up a self-sufficient community. The group was cut off from any contact with the outside world, and had to “decide on their own rules and laws, build their own shelter, grow their own food and raise their own livestock,” according to a statement released when the show was first announced.

The year-long experiment was recorded by a four-strong crew as well as personal cameras and a fixed rig. Four episodes of the show – covering March, April and May – were broadcast last summer. But ratings slipped from 1.7 million to 800,000, leading Channel 4 to pull the plug on further updates.

No one bothered to tell the remaining contestants, who reportedly endured boredom and infighting, were reduced at one point to eating chicken feed, and only emerged last week from their less than splendid isolation to discover that their fellow Brits voted to leave the European Union and Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

The plot of Tropic Thunder come to life. I love the image of an extremely dramatic group of people hamming it up for episodes of a show doomed to anonymity, conjuring drama and betrayal out of thin air for nothing. Living in the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, where they endured the terrors of “boredom and infighting,” banging each other’s socks off for a network that didn’t even know they were still out there. Did the experience harden these woeful castaways against the elements? Teach them to live off the land? Nope.

Thirteen of the 23 contestants quit the show during the year as sexual jealousy, infighting and hunger took their toll. Tara Zieleman, the first to quit, claimed she had been bullied, while local residents said that contestants were caught smuggling in junk food and alcohol and that some had been treated by a local dentist after eating chicken feed laced with grit.

And the reality of reality TV once again rears its dishonest head! These prima donnas were sneaking in junk food like it was Camp Hope (Heavyweights reference, who’s with me?) Then they brought in a dentist to floss out the grit from a couple handfuls of chicken food, and Tara quits due to bullying?! What a bunch of 6th graders. Salt of the earth survivors indeed.