COVID-19 throws spanner in the works for top shows
As the TV industry responds to the coronavirus, some top shows have been forced to rethink their traditional exotic pacific locations.
Fiona Byrne
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Channel 10 may consider moving its productions of Survivor and Bachelor in Paradise from their traditional exotic pacific locations to Australia as the TV industry responds to the coronavirus.
While no decision has been made yet as to where the next series of the productions will be set, the idea that they could relocate from their current bases in Fiji to somewhere in Australia because of the uncertainty related to COVID-19 is a possibility.
Already Ten has rejigged The Amazing Race so teams race around Australia rather than the world, and the network is expected to confirm that the next series of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! will be filmed near the Queensland border rather than in South Africa.
The British version of I’m a Celebrity has filmed at the Australian location for a number of years.
Meanwhile, Channel 7 has confirmed it will move the productions of Holey Moley and SAS: Who Dares Wins to Australia.
Holey Moley, with Greg Norman, Brian Taylor and Olympia Valance among the hosts, was to be filmed in the US, and SAS, with contestants including Nick Cummins, Roxy Jacenko, James Magnussen, Candice Warner and Jackson Warne, was to be shot in New Zealand. Those plans were steamrolled in March by COVID-19.
Sets for both shows will now be built in Australia with the TV debut of Holey Moley moving to 2021. One question that remains unanswered is whether US comedian Rob Riggle, who is to co-host Holey Moley, will be able to travel to Australia for filming