The Yurt

Three celebrities, far removed from their usual comforts, spend five days living in a yurt. No familiar routines, no easy habits. Just a stripped-back existence shaped by the principles of sustainable living, and a set of daily challenges that make those principles feel very real.

Produced by RTBF and Why Why Productions, The Yurt is a Belgian reality format that takes ecology out of the lecture hall and puts it somewhere far more interesting: into the hands of personalities chosen precisely because they disagree, provoke, and entertain. The three participants are not competing against each other. They face the experience together, and the consequences of failure land on all of them equally. Miss a challenge, lose a resource. Water, gas, electricity, light — each one gone until the end.

Success, by contrast, earns a Tree of Life, each representing €1,000 donated to a sustainable development charity. The ultimate challenge puts an additional €5,000 at stake.

What gives the format its energy is the collision between personality and circumstance. Dilemmas, nature breaks, and eco-challenges create genuine moments of debate, humour, and reflection. The format premiered on RTBF to strong ratings, drawing 23.5% of viewers aged 15 to 25 against a slot average of 7.8%.