Sundays, 9pm,
Channel 4
We actually had not watched The Island with Bear Grylls, the extreme survival reality show, but they’ve changed it up a bit this time round with a twist that might make it more appealing to our tastes so I thought I’d give it a show discussion post just in case.
12 contestants have to survive for six weeks on a desert island with just the clothes on their backs and some survival tools. This year, the big twist, is that there is £100,000 spread across the island, which will require success in survival challenges to win. However to keep the cash they have to get to the end of the experience, if they quit, any money found is returned. How will this effect the dynamic? It sounds a bit like Stranded With A Million Dollars without the buying overpriced supplies element.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
This feels like it would have been a huge hit about 15 years ago, but I worry it will turn out to be an expensive flop.
I’m not sure I see it doing any worse than the previous five series of The Island, tbh.
There was a New Zealand reality show (also called Treasure Island) that had literally this exact format with a version of The Mole’s elimination process (mark these landmarks on a blank map of the island; farthest away is out) instead of “just don’t quit”.
It got seven seasons and a revival that’s on air now.
Yep, we’ve discussed that here before – the Aussie version was shown on Channel 5 over here, and there was an identical Irish version. The NZ became a bit more standard vote-out which was a shame, but I had no idea they’d revived it so I might look into that as it had some quite fun ideas, ta.
I’ve been reading recaps- they’ve gone to a head-to-head elimination challenge instead of vote-offs…
It also replaced Survivor NZ this year.
Also one of the runners-up from the early seasons is currently married to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. So there’s that too, I guess.
For the end of year poll – will this count as a ‘new’ show?
Well it’s changed title so effectively it’s a new show, so yes.
In Italy is is 10 years since legendary host Mike Bongiorno passed away, and Canale 5 has been airing a ton of old clips of his shows, including… this one 😀
I’m not sure what there is to say, only that I really enjoyed that and am quietly looking forward to shit hitting a fan.
It does make me wan to watch The Island on All 4 as well.
I agree with Brig – The Island in its previous incarnation had been rung dry (there’s only so many times you can get excited about trying to light fires/camp being washed away/crocodiles becoming dinner) and making that a sideshow to a treasure hunt with plenty of opportunity for skullduggery and subversion is a clever way of reviving a format CH4 clearly still think they need in their annual armoury. Good work.
My initial reservation is they have cast one too many “characters”, usually the casting team get the balance about right. The first half seemed to be usual opening episode fare of oh no they haven’t got a camp and shock horror they are struggling to find water. The second half with the two guys finding the initial money made it very interesting and that’s only going to ramp up over the weeks. Looks like that means we’ll be spared the patronising VTs of Bear explaining “the islanders are in trouble as they have no water and you really NEED THAT IF YOU WANT TO LIVE”. So big improvement there.
From the production side, I’ve always been interested in the camera crew who we have been told in the past experience the island like the rest of the contestants, and in those series they have had a decent amount of screen time as necessary. Presuming from the opening episode, they aren’t eligible for any money nor can they start grassing anyone up which is understandable but a shame for them!
Watching this made me realize how much Bear Grylls commentary sounds exactly like the voice of former The Mole host and Deal Or No Deal banker Glenn Hugill