#4. Flower's Surprise Exit
In September, some four million viewers happily tuned in for the latest
episode of Animal Planet's popular documentary series Meerkat
Manor, which follows a mongoose family in the Kalahari Desert in South
Africa. Fans of the perkily-narrated show were shocked, however, to see
footage of the clan matriarch, Flower, dying from a cobra bite. As thousands
of tributes were posted online, critics of the show claimed the production
crew should have intervened to save the beloved meerkat, but the executive
producer said that the reality series had to remain authentic — even if that
meant losing its main character.