Reality TV star kills herself during filming for matchmaking show in South Korea

A top South Korean television station faced a storm of media criticism on Thursday following the shock suicide of a female contestant on its popular reality matchmaking show.

The contestant on “Jjak" (The Mate) - a show aired on SBS, one of the South’s top three TV stations - was found dead Wednesday during a week-long production shoot at a guesthouse in the southern island of Jeju.

The 29-year-old, surnamed Chun, appeared to have hanged herself with a hair dryer cord, police said, adding she left a note saying she didn’t want to live anymore.

The weekly show puts about 10 men and women in the same guesthouse, dubbed ”Lovetown”, for a week while they are filmed by TV crew and surveillance cameras.

The participants, clad in matching uniforms, are put through various physical challenges in hopes of getting a date out of one of their fellow contestants, before making a final choice at the end of the week.

Since its debut in 2011, the show has made a name for putting participants through the emotional wringer, forcing them to eat alone outside when rejected by the date of their choice.

“The Lovetown ends in tragedy,” ran the headline in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, which interviewed past participants who spoke of feeling bullied and humiliated.