New CBS reality show 'The Summit' resembles 'Lord of the Rings' host Manu Bennett says
"The Summit" looks like it's a game of strength and endurance but it's really a test of strategy, its host says.
"You have to watch and see how they strategize when it comes to a strong week in the middle," Manu Bennett says of the new competition show. "It's a very deliberate game."
Some could exit because they're likely to win; others may disappear because they're too weak to endure the physical tests. Some share everything about their lives; others are cagey.
"Manu would have done really well on the physical aspects, but he might have gotten voted off because ... he might have rubbed some of them the wrong way," Executive Producer Kevin Lee adds.
Still, that doesn't diminish the activity that takes place in the new series. Battling for $1 million, 16 contestants have 14 days to reach the summit of a mountain. Because they can't split the pot, players need to decide who should be dropped from the team.
Based on an Australian reality series, "The Summit" takes place in the New Zealand Alps where all sorts of weather can occur. Bennett, a New Zealand native and actor, tested the climb before the series started, but doesn't accompany the contestants on their journey.
"My job as the host is to be there, greet them and make their assessments of the competition," he says. "If I get injured, there's nobody in front of the camera. I'm not climbing over the bridge with them but I'm there in support always."
Because helicopters can't be used at night in the region, persons voted off aren't immediately whisked to a hotel in Queenstown, Lee says. "They're sleeping in a tent on the side of the mountain." The next day, they get the ride back to the hotel, where they can enjoy the amenities and visit areas not on the trek. That's a switch from many competition series.
Also, the American version is more structured than the Australian one. "American audiences like to know when they're going to get their meat, when they're going to get their potatoes, when they're going to get their dessert," Lee says. "They want it to be like that each week. We also changed some of the route that the cast members took to the top of the mountain in order to showcase some different obstacles that we thought would be more exciting for the American audience."
Producers, for example, added a rope bridge across a canyon that upped the stakes for American audiences.
Bennett likens the journey to something out of J.R.R. Tolkien. "You've got your Frodo characters, your smart guy – the Gandalf – and then you've got your Gollums," Bennett says. "There's a real analogy to the whole of the 'Rings.'" The million-dollar prize is just like the ring.
Many contestants didn't know the level of activity involved in "The Summit," Lee says. "They thought it was more like an adventure race. But when they heard the word 'mountain,' they knew what they were up against, and they did better than I thought they would."
Because there are set goals for each day of climbing, contestants have incentives to get there. Make the goal: stay in tents. Miss the goal and they're on the track with no tent, no fire, no food.
"It's a bit of a punishment for not actually meeting the required goals," Bennett says. "When they arrive at these places, there's kind of a celebration, but then we come to the vote time...and they've all got a really, really good reason not to want to be the person who doesn't complete it or gets knocked off each episode. It's difficult for me to watch sitting there with them and it's difficult for them to make the decision who it is that's going to be separated from the group. It's like holding on to somebody's hand on this mountain and they fall, and they fall. Nobody enjoys the process. But nobody is really crushing somebody's dreams."
"The Summit" airs on CBS.
Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
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