Clueless Americans reclaim their Norwegian heritage

”Culture Shock: Norway“ drops a group of disoriented Norwegian-Americans into Norway to complete a series of cultural challenges, with only one competitor proving worthy of their ancestry.
Most Americans are culturally illiterate and don’t even possess a passport, despite the vast majority having their roots in other countries. Millions are of Norwegian heritage.

”Culture Shock: Norway“ is a contest that takes 10 Americans that have never before left their country and challenges them, over eight episodes, to embrace their heritage. The contestants will be recruited from across America. After we meet them and their families, they are issued their first international plane ticket. Suddenly finding themselves alone in distant Norway, they must now face a series of extreme cultural challenges.

For the next eight weeks of their lives, they will be subjected to three extreme cultural challenges per week that will test their skill, courage and determination – such as eating smoked sheep’s head, passing a Norwegian ice driving course in Lillehammer and learning a traditional Norwegian dance.
For each challenge a contestant wins, another branch will grow on their family tree with a short vignette about a long-lost family member.
During the program, they are only allowed to eat Norwegian food. Any access to American newspapers and television is denied – not even telephoning or e-mailing home is permitted. To break these rules is to risk elimination, but when a contestant performs well, they can earn prizes such as a phone call home, an episode of their favorite TV show or a hamburger and French fries.

At each new location, locals will act as both guides and judges. The contestants must prove not only capable of completing each challenge, but also that they do so with style and the determination to embrace every aspect of Norwegian culture.

In the final episode, the 10 contestants come face-to-face with a group of their living Norwegian relatives. Their challenge is to successfully pick their own family members. Their performance on this task, combined with their score from the previous 7 episodes will determine the grand prize winner.

We join the winner and his or her new Norwegian family as they get to know each other and prepare for the arrival of 10 relatives from America. We witness the American family’s shocked reaction when they discover they are the winners of the grand prize: a family reunion in Norway.

The final episode ends as the American family arrives at the reunion to meet their new family and celebrate in their very own Norwegian summer cabin.

There could be some Culture Shock coming your way soon!

Culture Shock: Norway
Reality
Format
Created by Brain Station for TV Norge in association with SevenOne International
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