Mythbusters (lost unaired segments of Discovery Channel science entertainment series; 2006-2015)
This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter.
Logo for the series.
Status: Lost
Mythbusters is a popular science entertainment TV program, hosted by veteran special effects artists Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage that puts various myths, storytelling tropes and urban legends to rigorous scientific test. Adam & Jamie then use their results to determine if the myths are in reality "plausible" or "busted".
Banned segment
In the 2006 Mythbusters episode "Steam Cannon", among the myths being tested is "there's more nutrition in the cardboard box than the cereal." The experiemnt was designed with lab mice placed in three groups - one group eating normal mouse food, one eating the sugary cereal, and one eating cardboard box pellets. The resulting segment, as aired, is wholly uneventful; the mice are not seen after their initial introduction, and the impression is given that this is because the myth turned out to be so easily busted. Still, the experiment feels oddly truncated in comparison to the usual in-depth investigation.
In a Q&A some years later, host Adam Savage explained that this was because the experiment had actually gone so completely awry that much of the footage never made it to air.
According to Adam, they soon noticed that the cardboard-eating mice were acting strangely. When they came in to check on them the following morning, they found that one of the "cardboard mice", presumably starving and desperate, had eaten two of the other mice.
The show's producers at the Discovery Channel refused to let this development be part of the episode. In the interview, Adam admits to making a rough cut of the footage and showing it at "Northern Michigan Tech" (likely referring to either "Northern Michigan University" or "Michigan Tech University"). When Discovery found out, they told Adam never to show it again.
Mythbusters was cancelled as of 2016, but due to the graphic animal violence, it is very unlikely this footage will ever resurface publicly, especially considering Discovery tries its best to keep a family-friendly image and strictly avoids any hint of animal harm (never testing the myth of "drying a dog in a microwave" in any form, for instance).