Quick exit: Shock as two stars walk from SAS reality show
Well that was quick. Word from the set of Channel 7’s much anticipated new reality show, SAS Australia, is that two of its highest profile contestants were the first to leave the show, just days into filming.
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Well that was quick.
Word from the set of Channel 7’s much anticipated new reality show, SAS Australia, is that convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby and publicist Roxy Jacenko are the first two contestants to leave.
Confidential understands Jacenko was fed up with the lack of creature comforts on set while Corby struggled with the fitness.
“It was too much for them,” a production source told Confidential. “They just walked. Roxy wasn’t happy and Schappelle couldn’t keep up with the fitness.”
SAS Australia is a new format to Australian viewers and will see a group of high-profile contestants “embark on the toughest test of their lives attempting to overcome the intensive SAS selection process”.
Their aim is to pass the selection process to join the Australian Army’s elite Special Air Service.
Production started in New Zealand earlier this year but was suspended due to coronavirus.
Filming began around Jindabyne in the NSW Snowy Mountains earlier this week.
Channel 7 understandably would not comment when contacted. The show will air in October.
Corby, 43, was found guilty in 2005 of smuggling 4.2kg of marijuana into Bali in a bodyboard bag and spent almost a decade in the notorious Kerobokan prison.
“We go into the SAS as a number, not a name, which is significant for me because I won’t be Schapelle Corby, I will just be a human being,” Corby told The Sunday Telegraph at the weekend.
“I wanna stop being institutionalised. I want to open my freedom to a happier life, a more fulfilling life.”
Corby explained that she was taking part in the show to learn something new about herself, not to win over the Australian public.
“I don’t want to prove myself to anybody,” she said. “This is for me. I don’t care what people think of me. I hope people enjoy it but this is for me.”
“I think I’ll discover that I’m stronger than I am, that I think I am. I’m hoping to discover life and to discover myself.”
Others still in the competition include Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins, Erin McNaught, Candice Warner, Ali Oetjen, James Magnussen, Firass Dirani, Mitchell Johnson, Merrick Watts and Shannan Ponton.
“Over two weeks, an elite group of ex-Special Forces soldiers, led by Chief Instructor Ant Middleton, will put these stars through an extraordinary series of physical and psychological tests, each from the real SAS selection process,” a production brief reads.
“Cut off from the outside world at a secret base … they will eat, sleep and train together in spectacular and punishing terrain with no allowances made for their celebrity status.
“As they progress through the gruelling course, they’ll be forced to confront surprising truths about themselves to discover their real character.
“Some will reach breaking point and withdraw.”