Podcast Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera revisits dark moment in reality television history

A new podcast revisits one of the dark moments of reality television history in an effort to restore dignity to the memory of transgender model Miriam Rivera.

A new podcast investigates the treatment of Miriam Rivera at the height of "cruel reality television".

The story of There’s Something About Miriam seems like a bad joke now, something you’d overhear in a pub by someone who’d had one too many.

But no, the UK reality show that pitted six heterosexual males against each other for the affection of Miriam Rivera aired in 2004 after the contestants learned in the final episode that the Mexican model was transgender.

The result was the televised humiliation of the contestants and a wave of public condemnation that crashed on Rivera, then 21, who later appeared on the Australian production of Big Brother.

Rivera died in 2019 at the age of 38, police ruling suicide but her husband Daniel Cuervo suspecting foul play.

A new podcast from American podcast network Wondery, Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera, is revisiting that dark moment of reality television history in an effort to restore dignity to the memory of Rivera.

Host Trace Lysette – a transgender actress – tells listeners about the Miriam she met in the New York ballroom scene before the former became famous.

Audio of Rivera’s identity denouement during the show’s finale – her trembling voice overpowered by the laughter of contestants – is painful listening.

It’s a credit to Lysette and writer Agnes Borinsky that they don’t demonise the six contestants from the show, who would sue network Sky One.

Interviews with winner Tom Rooke and a psychologist brought in for the final episode suggest network Sky One had an almost complete disregard for the psychological harm inflicted on Rivera and contestants.

Would such a show be commissioned today? This reviewer would hope no one still thinks that being transgender is a punchline.

Listen to There’s Something About Miriam on your favourite podcast app.