I'd like to see the way people act, in a real, isolated, natural but tough environment, away from all technology, with verified realness of the people and verified editing.
Certified random selection - anyone interested needs to show up on a certain day, and there's be a verified, truthfully random selection process. There may be some pre-screening, but it can't reduce the random applicant pool to less than 10% of total applicants. It just screens out people with medical problems, criminal past, etc. There'd be no carefully selected representatives of various groups - it's really a random sample of the interested population.
There are be 20 or so people altogether, and nobody would get kicked out once the thing started. They have to stay for a year, and if they make it to the end, they get 100k. If they leave early they get 30k or so. They can leave at any time, by walking out (a process which would take some time - the first few hours of it would be on cam & it would be revokable anytime up to the threshold.)
A place with nature, not too hot or cold - an island, or a mesa, etc.
There are be hundreds of cameras and mics around everywhere. The feeds are running 24/7, and are all be available online.
The contestants are able to survive, barely, without doing any work, but the food's bad, and it's cold etc. Food is airdropped in, along with a few supplies. But basically, they're on their own. They need to make their own shelter, clothes, etc.
I really want to know what a bunch of random people would do all day. How nice would they make their houses? What'd they spend the long days working on? Singing? Telling stories? Complaining? Writing? Playing music? What sports and games would they make up without traditional balls or fields?
What would they talk to each other about? They would reinvent the lifestyle humans had for thousands of years, and have only recently forgotten.
It'd also be interesting seeing the dynamics and relationships between people.
What would happen if there was someone who didn't speak very good english? what if they had skills that nobody else had? What if there were a gender imbalance?
What about law & order? Would they come up with a justice system? For experimental purposes it would be really nice to include this as a variable, but it's probably not viable legally or morally. Seeing the development of a state in real-time would be amazing though; first norms would develop, then the first accusation, trial, and implementation of justice.
Since the entire raw footage is available online, any fan could make their own version of the show, focusing on the people they were interested in. Someone might make one just about the evening campfire - and you could watch 5 minutes of it for every day they were there, and see the progression - changing moods, relationships, and comments. See the relationships grow or fade. Or someone might focus on how they build things, the survivalist version - what tools they made, plants they found, how they hunted etc. A third version might just be about romance, significant looks between people, etc.
There could be a conventional, official version too, which'd be general, and would lead people into liking certain characters & show them what was available.
I think this show would be way, way more interesting than contrived reality shows. We'd learn about humanity and real human nature.