Excommunicated from professional cycling, Lance Armstrong (one of the most notorious dopers in the history of the sport) has launched a new career in reality television.

Armstrong, a Texas native, appears on the show Stars on Mars.

In this tedious show that insults actual astronauts, players wear suits that look like video games, and the South Australian outback becomes the set for outdoor scenes, simulating the colonization of Mars.

The production drew condemnation in Australia. According to local press reports, the SA Film Corporation said it was unaware that there was a disgraced cyclist in the cast of the show being filmed in Coober Pedy.

The film was funded as part of the Australian Location Incentive, which means that Armstrong is again indirectly benefiting from Australian taxpayer money.

In 2009, Armstrong received US$1 million (A$1.5 million at the time) from the South Australian government to compete in the Tour Down Under after announcing his retirement.

South Australian Treasurer Rob Lucas released information about the deal as part of his 2019 election campaign, sparking outrage that taxpayer money had been used to line the pockets of an athlete already the subject of numerous allegations of performance enhancing drug cheating The release sparked.

Armstrong confessed to doping on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2013 after an extensive investigation by USADA in 2012 exposed his long history of doping.

He was also the subject of a federal lawsuit under the False Claims Act in the United States, agreeing to pay the government $5 million in 2018 to settle a potentially $100 million lawsuit.

The show was hosted by 92-year-old Star Trek star William Shatner and featured actors Ariel Winter (who mistook Armstrong for deceased astronaut Neil Armstrong in the opening), Tallulah Willis, comedian Natasha Leggero, Portia Williams, MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, figure skater Adam Rippon, and former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch also appear. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was eliminated in the first episode, which aired this week.