Does it feel like we've seen all this before, except with bikinis and beaches instead of parkas and peaks?
The last few years have seen quite an uptick in new reality competition series, from Netflix's offensive "Squid Game" contest to Peacock's Emmy-winning "The Traitors." So it might seem like the perfect moment for CBS to debut the mountain-climbing competition "The Summit" (special sneak preview Sunday, 9 EDT/PDT, moves to Wednesdays, 9:30 EDT/PDT on Oct. 9, ★★ out of four). The series, adapted from an Australian show, sets a group of strangers on a journey to reach the summit of a mountain in just 14 days. Anyone who makes it will share what's left of a $1 million cash prize the climbers are carrying on their backs. But here's the catch: the group can lose players and money along the way.
Hosted woodenly by actor Manu Bennett ("Spartacus"), there are a lot of great elements to "Summit," snipped from some all-time reality formats: Voting out your fellow players, a variable prize pot, crazy physical challenges and gorgeous travel scenery. A little "Survivor" here, some "Amazing Race" there, a bit of "The Mole" sprinkled on top. Those are all great ingredients.
But when it's all clumped together, "Summit" ends up being a cheap "Survivor" knockoff on a mountain, too physically difficult for most of its contestants and full of nonsensical twists and rules that make it hard to understand, let alone get sucked into. The best reality competitions have a structure that allows great stories to grow naturally no matter the cast, with heroes and villains arising out of any old group of wannabe millionaires. "Summit" fights against itself: at a certain point, there's very little enjoyment and entertainment to be found in watching people groan and grunt as they climb a nearly 90-degree cliff face.
The objective of "Summit" is for its contestants to reach the titular location in the (admittedly gorgeously picturesque) New Zealand Alps in just 14 days. They each have an equal share of $1 million in their backpacks as they set off on their trek, and they must remain together as a group. They can't move on from obstacles and challenges until everyone has made it through.
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Here's where the cutthroat part of the series is meant to be. At various points, the climbers are given the choice by the "mountain keeper" (aka, a black helicopter that wastes fuel by popping up ominously and dropping bags with game twists) to lose stragglers and go faster, but they also lose that person's cash when they cut them loose. If anyone quits, the money in their pack is gone, as well. But players also vote out one of their fellow hikers each time they reach certain checkpoints (at the end of each episode), and "steal" that eliminated contestant's money, aka not shrink the prize pot.
It's unnecessarily convoluted and ends up being kind of anticlimactic. The group votes are public, meaning they're entirely ruled by groupthink. Usually, only one or two names are suggested and most people raise their hands to fit in with the majority. The twist of the group being able to lose slow pokes for the cost of their money might actually lead to interesting dilemmas for the climbers, except that the producers too often try to force the players' hands. And when one contestant has to be medically evacuated, his money disappears too, which feels annoyingly unfair. It's not any of the competitors' fault that the producers cast someone who wasn't up to the task.
Speaking of that task, it's probably just too hard. Climbing a mountain is not something anyone can get up off their couch and do on any old day. The cast is made up of people with differing athletic abilities, but there is very little opportunity for the slower and less agile to shine. There's very little suspense to a show where it seems clear the biggest guy is probably going to be the winner. And again, it's really not very pleasant to watch these people break down into tears over the back-breaking physical struggle.
It's almost like 24 years ago someone came up with a pretty good format for reality competition that pushed contestants to the physical brink while testing social and strategic skills, and it already airs on CBS on Wednesdays at 8 EDT/PDT.
"Survivor" is still chugging along quite nicely; we don't need "The Summit."
