Reality television programmes were under renewed fire in Portugal after the winner of the nation's first edition of the popular Big Brother series threatened to throw himself from a bridge.
  
Jose Maria, 27, parked his car on a suspension bridge that spans the Tagus river in Lisbon and threatened to jump for 45 minutes before two policemen were able to hoist him to safety, local media reported.
  
He became a national hero four years ago after he won the first edition of the television show, where contestants are imprisoned in a camera-infested house and embarrassingly intimate details of members' lives are  broadcast nationally.
  
But after a initial flurry of media attention and a few advertisement contracts, the press began to lose interest. Soon he had lost his 100,000 euro prize money in a number of failed business ventures.
  
In recent media interviews Jose Maria, who hails from a small town in the south of Portugal, had expressed his regret at his participation in the show whose format has been criticised around the world - but eagerly lapped up by viewers.
  
Daily newspaper Correio da Manha said he has been "abandoned by the machines which produced him".
  
"From this drama the question remains: don't those who placed him in the sky without preparing him for the inevitable fall now have something to say?" it added.
  
The threatened suicide was also a hot topic on radio talk shows across Portugal.
  
The television show, which has had five runs in Portugal, has repeatedly come under fire from the nation's television watchdog for violating television decency rules, mostly for featuring live sex and nudity.