‘Manhunt’ Exec Alleges TV Show Was ‘Falsified’

The co-executive producer of “Manhunt,” a survival game show that began airing on UPN this month, alleges the show’s producers “falsified” the program to increase its dramatic appeal.

Bob Jaffe, the co-executive producer whose company was hired by Paramount Television to produce the show, said in an interview Wednesday that he was fired after he refused to make the alterations. “They wanted to create conflict between the contestants that didn’t exist,” said Jaffe, a veteran producer who was co-creator of “American Gladiator.”

Jaffe, the first executive associated with a nonscripted program to allege that these shows are tampered with, said months after he finished filming the show in Hawaii early this year, Paramount doctored “Manhunt” by re-shooting interviews with contestants in Griffith Park, as well as altering some of the results in the hunts.

Paramount and UPN denied the allegations. “UPN and Paramount have not supported and would not support persons or practices designed to manipulate the outcome of the show,” they said in a joint statement Wednesday.

The latest in a crop of unscripted shows, “Manhunt” features three big game hunters, played by actors, who stalk 13 contestants with paint ball guns as they make their way over a 25-mile jungle course. The winner, which will be determined in the last of six shows, early next month, will receive $250,000.

“You can tell they were re-shot because they were wearing bandannas, had makeup on and their uniforms were clean,” said Jaffe, who says he got a glimpse of the initial three episodes just days before the show debuted Aug. 3. He alleged the bandannas were used to cover contestants’ shaved heads received as part of the punishment of being eliminated in the game.

Jaffe’s claims were first outlined by Peter Lance, a journalist and former writer and producer, on the Web site, https://www.thestingray.net. The site has become a clearinghouse for information on the rigging of nonscripted programs.