The programme Shattered was a spin-off from Big Brother. But if you look at how Big Brother has turned out today then you might well look back and realise that Shattered really wasn't as bad as some people say.
Yes, it included tasks which were designed to make the contestants feel worse. Yes it allowed them a certain amount of sleep each day.
Me though, I didn't watch it because I wanted to see people suffering, the same way I didn't watch Big Brother originally because I wanted to see some idiot doing unusual things with a wine bottle. I watched it because I studied human psychology and I wanted to see how ordinary people (and they were ordinary back then!) coped under adverse psychological conditions.
Shattered presented some fascinating insights into how the human brain acts under severe sleep deprivation. And it is a study which is not likely to be shown to the viewing public again in a long time.
The programme was stupidly sensationalist, yes. But it was also fascinating too. It was probably only entertaining to those who thought the original idea of Big Brother was fascinating, watching how people really do act and cope without trying to entertain the Hello reading masses.