With only hours to go before it’s due to be screened, a red-faced Channel 9 executive has admitted to me that tonight’s opening episode of The Summit will also be the last.
I can now confirm that the show lived up to its pre-screening hype about being the most dangerous reality TV project ever attempted and that all 14 contestants have died during the taping of that first episode.
In respect to the grieving families of those who have perished, Channel Nine will not be showing the various deadly moments, including ropes and rickety bridges giving away high above ravines, deadly avalanches, tragic white-water rapid turnovers, sheer mountain-cliff climbing attempts that went horribly wrong given the total inexperience of the people involved and one sickening attack by a randy mountain goat.
I understand some of the fatalities were caused by contestants simply fighting to the death over their packpacks that collectively contained a million dollars in prizemoney and I guess you can’t blame them for that! Times are tough out there at the moment; we all know that.
With the months of promotions the station has been giving The Summit, hosted by up-and-coming Austrian actor Jai Courtney, I knew this first episode was going to make a killing but I never saw this coming. I don’t think anyone did but I guess when you have 14 inexperienced strangers all striving to get to the peak of a New Zealand mountain to win all that money, then you had to expect the worst, I suppose. Greed and a burning desperation fueled by poverty are a terrible, terrible, mix at any time.
Still, my heart goes out to those contestants and the folk they’ve left behind, but also to Channel 9 as the production costs of this series would have been enormous and it would surely have taken several weeks of programming to cover that outlay. Surely Nine Entertainment Co. is losing enough money putting out the Herald mastheads without this disaster now befalling it?
In better news, here’s a great news flash! I can now report that Australia’s entrant, Voyager has just this morning won the Eurovision song contest on front of a worldwide audience of 160 million!
And if you believe that, boy have I got some bridge deals for you!
Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!
The Bug Online 