The reality show Round 6: The Challenge hasn’t even premiered yet, but it’s already getting people talking. The show, which airs on the Netflix platform, tests the limits of the 456 contestants from different countries as they compete to win a whopping $4.56 million (approximately R$23 million) in prize money.
One of the members of the sixth round is Yohan Tanaka. The singer was the only Brazilian selected for the competition. But since all good things don’t last long, the boy was surprised by a series of alleged manipulation of results.
In an interview with columnist Fábia Oliveira, Yohan revealed details about what he experienced during the recording of the reality show. According to him, the manipulations were carried out from the moment tickets were issued to London, with the return date to Brazil already set. In addition, unhealthy diet and other situations were also experienced.
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“The recordings were a mess, they were terrible. At first we were very excited, and then as the recording went on for hours, we realized that it wasn’t at all what we really expected or thought,” he explained.
There were already marked cards for Yohan in the program, so the other participants were just extras.
1/7Yohan Tanaka is a singer and was the only Brazilian chosen for the Netflix reality show “Round 6: The Challenge”. ▲Yohan Tanaka is a singer and was the only Brazilian chosen for the Netflix reality show “Round 6: The Challenge”. ▲Yohan Tanaka is a singer and was the only Brazilian chosen for the Netflix reality show “Round 6: The Challenge”. ▲Yohan Tanaka is a singer and was the only Brazilian chosen for the Netflix reality show “Round 6: The Challenge”. ▲Yohan Tanaka is a singer and was the only Brazilian chosen for the Netflix reality show “Round 6: The Challenge” ▲1234567
“In January of this year I received an email that would forever change my life. I was selected to represent Brazil in the taping of the competition. But in reality it was a reality show with stacked cards, abuse of power and zero real chance of winning a millionaire prize. “We were just unpaid extras,” he revealed.
“We entered the country as tourists and not to work in production on a work visa. As soon as we arrived, we already had our return tickets, which contradicts the whole process of veracity of a reality show,” the boy explained.
The Brazilian took part in the first game in which a puppet “kills” anyone who moves. From the reality trailer, it can be seen that participants will receive “paint splatters” on their uniforms to symbolize leaving the game.
“The first game was about the little doll that kills you when you move by putting a laser in its eyes. This took me between eight and ten hours. We don’t know exactly why there was no way to check your watch and phone, everything was forbidden. That day it was 9 degrees, the coldest day of the year,” he said.
Yohan reported, “Each stop we had to make to wait for the little doll to come back and turn around to start singing took 10 to 20 minutes. We were frozen and couldn’t move because there were drones there to take the pictures and cameras were on the ground filming. They really made us suffer. The idea was that we would give up so they could eliminate us as quickly as possible, so they could then focus on the people they wanted or the numbers they wanted.”
He then told the column that many people became sick, fainted and even injured themselves as a result of falls. “People fainted, fell, got bruises, there were people who fell and hit their heads… One had a seizure,” he said.
“There was a moment that was very memorable for many people. The first time someone was injured, they fainted. I remember one person started shouting, “Doctor, doctor,” and then the others shouted too, it became a chorus. I don’t think anyone understood what happened. We started looking aside, not wanting to switch, because we also didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get to the next level and maybe win a lot of money. Once we understood gravity, it became clear to everyone that the journey there was very real and also very manipulated,” he added.
According to Yohan, the program used a type of coffin to “save” people who had “died” and been excluded from the test. However, this was also done to the sick people there. “We saw someone being carried, rather than on a stretcher, they put the sick person in the coffin to use in the cut scenes. It was very crazy, very chaotic,” he explained.
Yohan announced that he had managed to cross the finish line of the race, but was still eliminated. “Me and about 20, 30 others, more or less, arrived and were eliminated afterwards because they wanted to because there was no room for more people,” he said.
The fear and fallout from the lockdown prompted some program participants to create a WhatsApp group to expose some atrocities that allegedly occurred during the shoot.
“There were various types of abuse, mainly psychological. Physical abuse… We could give up at any time, but we believed it was a real competition. I think that was the big problem that we believed. Why is it stupid to stand for eight to ten hours freezing, without food, without drink, without water, without anything? If we knew, we wouldn’t stay,” he said.
With the summary elimination, Yohan assumes he has fallen into a genuine psychological breakdown. “I left home to be available to the production in London for a month, as stipulated in the contract. As soon as I arrived, I received my ticket back to Brazil without the recording even starting. “How can this happen?” asked the Brazilian.
After the recordings were completed and the dissatisfaction of other participants emerged, who revealed a series of manipulations in the WhatsApp group, Yohan realized that he was not alone. “I freaked out, I didn’t know what to do. I made the producer change my flight because I couldn’t get back to Brazil. It was my dream, they didn’t fulfill their part of the contract. I felt used, like I was a piece of the puzzle, an extra who doesn’t get anything for being there,” he added, who went to Europe where he stayed for a month.
To complete this cycle, Yohan revealed that he returned to music with a track inspired by the events of the sixth round. The song has the same name as the reality show.
“Round 6 is the first single of my new era after almost a year since I received this email. Round 6 tells the games of a lying competition, but at the same time draws an analogy to lovemaking. Or in my case, the games of a toxic relationship that I was in, but to which I reacted in time and became a winner,” he emphasized.
Watch the trailer for the reality show Round 6 here.