AFP Two of the three 'contestants' who were in on the hoax. They are genuine kidney patients who wanted to highlight the need for more donors.

Any publicity is good publicity, at least that was what three kidney patients must have thought when they agreed to be part of a hoax TV show, which purported to have them compete for a kidney. It turns out they had the right idea -- around 50,000 Dutch people are now planning to become organ donors in response to the show.

The scenario was simple: three patients were competing for a kidney from a terminally ill woman, who would interview the "contestants" and then the viewers would vote on who would get the organ transplant. The show provoked widespread condemnation and disgustnot just in the Netherlands but around the world.

Some 1.2 million people tuned in to watch the finale on Friday -- when the whole thing was revealed as a scam. It turned out the dying woman, "Lisa," was an actress, while the three contestants are genuinely on the waiting list for organs, and were in on the hoax. They had wanted to draw attention to the chronic lack of donors in the Netherlands.

It seemed to work: On Friday alone around 12,000 viewers sent an SMS to the show to sign up as donors. And by Monday, the TV station BNN that aired the show announced that around 50,000 people had requested organ donor forms.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he was relieved to hear the show was a set up. He had previously condemned it as damaging the Netherlands' reputation.

BNN had said that the show, which was produced by Endemol, the inventors of "Big Brother," was a tribute to its founder, Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago at the age of 35.

smd