What happens when the ratings start to drop and it's cancelled by season 4? Do they leave them there to die as funding has run out?
I would assume that you'd need to keep billions of viewers watching for a very long time to fund a mission to Mars (I assume it's advertising driven).
When you consider that the total revenue of the TV advertising industry in the USA last year was just shy of $29Bn and a manned expedition to Mars is estimated to cost $20Bn+ (which they plan to send every two years), then they would need to attract ~33% of the total TV advertising revenue of the USA just to break even. It would have to be the most successful television show ever by a long way.
Unless of course I've got the wrong end of the stick and the reality TV show is only meant to partially fund it.







