“The Contender” is an enormously successful reality show on television which makes “Big Brother” look like an innocent kindergarten game. The show’s candidates are selected via a lottery. These completely average contestants are given a revolver and are then sent out to track down the last show’s survivor, accompanied by a cameraman. The rule: only one of them can survive. The show’s current winner is Dawn, who is in her eighth month of pregnancy. The five new contestants are informed about being selected live on the show: Tony, a labourer whose marriage is on the brink of collapse, Connie, a religious nurse, eighteen-year-old Linda, the perfect incarnation of the all-American girl, Franklin, who suspects everyone of some kind of conspiracy, and finally Jeff, an artist and pacifist who has cancer and happens to be Dawn’s childhood sweetheart.