The Hold Your Wee for a Wii lawsuit ended in a $16.5 million jury verdict against Sacramento radio station KDND-FM and its parent, Entercom Communications, after 28-year-old contestant Jennifer Strange died from water intoxication following an on-air water-drinking contest in January 2007.1The “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” lawsuit resulted in a $16.5 million jury verdict against Sacramento radio station KDND-FM and its parent company, Entercom Communications, after contestant Jennifer Strange died from water intoxication following the station’s on-air drinking contest in January 2007. A Sacramento County jury in 2009 found the station 100 percent liable and assigned Strange no fault. A decade later, the station lost its broadcast license as a direct result of the same contest.
The Contest and Jennifer Strange’s Death
About 18 contestants gathered at KDND’s studio to compete for a Nintendo Wii. The premise was simple: drink as much water as possible without using the restroom, and the last person still holding out wins. Staff handed out eight-ounce bottles every 15 minutes at first, and the volume climbed as the competition wore on. Strange drank roughly two gallons over about three hours. Employees watched to prevent cheating; nobody watched to see whether contestants were becoming medically distressed.
Strange, a mother of three, entered hoping to win the console for her children. She complained of a severe headache during the contest. After leaving the station she called a friend and said the pain was getting worse. Hours later she was found dead at her home in Rancho Cordova.
The Sacramento County coroner ruled the cause of death water intoxication, or hyponatremia. When someone drinks far more water than the kidneys can process, sodium in the bloodstream is diluted to dangerous levels and water rushes into cells, causing swelling. In the brain, which has no room to expand inside the skull, that swelling shuts down basic life-support functions. Medical experts at trial testified that two gallons in three hours was more than enough to trigger the fatal chain reaction.
The Warnings the DJs Ignored
The evidence that proved decisive at trial came from the station’s own broadcast recording. A listener named Eva Brooks called in during the contest and told the hosts directly that people drinking that much water could get sick and possibly die from water intoxication.2A listener named Eva Brooks called in and told the hosts directly: “Those people that are drinking all that water can get sick and possibly die from water intoxication.” One DJ said they “were aware of that.” Another joked that everyone had signed releases, “so we’re not responsible.”3One DJ responded that they “were aware of that.” Another joked that everyone in the contest had signed releases, “so we’re not responsible.” The station’s attorney, Roger Dreyer, later argued that none of that safety information was ever passed to the contestants themselves.
The recording captured more than indifference. When one DJ told another that a contestant was “just about to die,” the response was “Make sure he signs the release,” followed by laughter. When contestants began vomiting, a DJ made retching sounds to encourage more heaving. The hosts teased Strange and others for not “looking so good” as their stomachs visibly distended. One DJ told listeners, “Your body is 98 percent water. Why can’t you take in as much water as you want?”4One DJ told the audience, “Your body is 98 percent water. Why can’t you take in as much water as you want?”
The Verdict and Why the Defenses Failed
Strange’s husband and family filed a wrongful death action against Entercom. The negligence theory was straightforward: the station owed a duty of care to people it invited into its promotional event, and it breached that duty by running the contest with no medical screening, no medical personnel on site, no emergency protocols, and no warning to contestants after a caller told the DJs someone could die.
In 2009 a Sacramento County jury found Entercom Sacramento LLC liable and awarded Strange’s family $16.5 million in compensatory damages covering economic losses and non-economic harm including loss of companionship. Entercom was assigned 100 percent of the fault. The jury assigned Strange zero.
Two defenses collapsed. The first was the signed waiver the DJs had joked about on air. Under California law, a liability waiver generally cannot shield a party from claims arising out of gross negligence or reckless conduct, and the on-air recording made the conduct hard to characterize as anything else. The waiver’s existence arguably worked against the station by showing it had anticipated the possibility of harm.
The second was assumption of risk. Entercom’s team argued that Strange voluntarily entered and should have known the danger. Her attorney countered that she “acted as any normal person would have in those circumstances,”5Strange’s attorney countered that she “acted as any normal person would have in those circumstances” since water intoxication is not general public knowledge the way, for example, alcohol poisoning is. The jury agreed.
Why There Were No Criminal Charges
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s office reviewed the case and declined to prosecute, concluding the conduct “did not rise to the level of criminal activity.”6The Sacramento County District Attorney’s office reviewed the case and declined to prosecute, concluding that the station employees’ conduct “did not rise to the level of criminal activity.” Special assistant deputy district attorney Lana Wyatt said involuntary manslaughter requires criminal negligence, and the office concluded the threshold was not met because Strange was an adult who voluntarily participated and could have stopped at any time. The reasoning drew criticism given the evidence that contestants were never told the contest could kill them, but the decision stood.
What Happened to KDND
KDND fired 10 employees after Strange’s death, but the most consequential consequence came a decade later from the Federal Communications Commission. In the fall of 2016 the FCC issued a Hearing Designation Order questioning whether the station’s conduct during its previous license term had served the public interest. The order cited the station’s awareness of the danger, its “callous disregard” for it, its failure to warn or protect participants, and the fact that contest rules were changed after the competition had begun. The FCC called it an “inherently dangerous contest.”7The FCC concluded that KDND had conducted an “inherently dangerous contest.”
Rather than face the hearing, Entercom asked the FCC in early 2017 to dismiss its license renewal application, effectively surrendering the license. KDND went off the air, and a sister station absorbed its format. The regulatory consequence arrived a full decade after Strange’s death, on its own timeline, long after the civil verdict was paid.