The Rundown: Producers stage early intervention on The Challenge contestants

Contestants on new reality show The Challenge had to be pulled into line after old rivalries kicked off as soon as the plane left.

It sounds like a TV show could have been made about the filming of the new Channel 10 reality show The Challenge with “an executive intervention” required to pull contestants into line.

“They had to be reminded they were there to make a TV show,” a well-placed source said, describing the talking part-way through production in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as an “executive intervention.”

“It was the first time anything like that had had to be done.”

The Challenge features 22 reality stars combed from Australian shows such as The Bachelor, Survivor, Big Brother, Married At First Sight, I’m A Celebrity, MasterChef Australia and Ninja Warrior. Contestants include Emily Seebohm, Brittany Hockley, Brooke Blurton, Jack Vidgen, Ciarran Stott, Konrad Bień-Stephen, Cyrell Paule, Ryan Gallagher and Marley Biyendolo.

Australia’s most talked about celebs take on a new challenge 💪

With old rivalries and new alliances, who has what it takes to go down in reality television history as Australia’s first Challenge Champion?
#TheChallengeAU Coming Soon to 10 and 10 Play. pic.twitter.com/1Y4ukPkNAT

— The Challenge (@TheChallenge_AU) September 4, 2022

With so many of the contestants knowing each other off screen, and in many cases having had previous run ins or love trysts with fellow contenders, there were plenty of sparks ready to fly when the group was brought together for the start of filming.

“It started on the plane over,” the source said of the drama.

Thankfully it looks like plenty of the drama has made it to the screen.

The first trailer for The Challenge was released last week and it looks like reality notables are fighting for supremacy in some Mad Max inspired apocalyptic wasteland. It is an attention-grabbing promo.

The series launches November 22.

Bruce works blue as Kah turns green

For a moment, just a moment, or actually 10 seconds, it sounded like the voice of Australian sport, Bruce McAvaney was working a little ‘blue’ when talking about top jockey Jamie Kah’s reaction to her former fiance Clayton Douglas winning The Everest.

His comments “that is the bloke I helped break in, that’s the bloke I rode a fair bit,” when describing what he thought Kah might be thinking about Douglas’s career high had racing types on Twitter tittering.

Trainer Clayton Douglas with Everest winner Giga Kick. Picture: Getty Images

Mornington-based Douglas trained Giga Kick to win the $15 million sprint in Sydney on Saturday. The victory was one of the best horse racing stories of the year.

As the horses headed to the finish line Channel 7 turned a camera on Kah who was at Caulfield waiting for her Caulfield Cup ride Smokin’ Romans to come into the mounting yard.

Once Gigi Kick had won the race, Seven replayed Kah’s reaction – one of genuine emotion for the tremendous success achieved by her former partner – and McAvaney waxed lyrical.

But his comments needed to be heard in context and in full.

“His former fiance Jamie Kah is here. … Look at Jamie here, she is on the favourite in the Caulfield Cup and she is thinking, ‘Boy, that is the bloke I helped break in, that’s the bloke I rode a fair bit, I rode him to win at Sale’.

The ‘bloke’ McAvaney was talking about was the speedy gelding, Giga Kick.

Seven is covering this weekend’s Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

Shantaram – the shirtless drinking game

First impressions of Shantaram, the Apple TV+ series that was filmed in large part in Melbourne, is that the camera loves Charlie Hunnam.

You could play a drinking game (*drink responsibly) based on how many times Hunnam, the Sons of Anarchy star, takes his shirt off in the first two episodes.

There are certainly moments where the shirtless, ripped Hunnam, with straggly hair and designer stubble, looks like he is in a Calvin Klein ad from the late ‘90s.

The 12-part series is unquestionably beautifully shot.

French actress Antonia Desplat and Charlie Hunnam, shirt on, at the premiere of Shantaram. Picture: Michael Tran

Hunnam plays Lin, a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison in the early 1980s and bolts to India where he reinvents himself. He gets a tick for his Aussie accent.

The show is adapted from the novel of the same name written by Gregory David Roberts – who broke out of Pentridge in 1980 and went on the run in India.

Hunnam plays Lin as a stranger in a strange land ricocheting from one spot of bother to another.

The production had a stop/start filming history. It was shooting in Melbourne and was shut down when the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020. The series returned to complete filming in late 2021.

Awards flow for axed Neighbours

It was bound to happen – Neighbours gets axed and then the awards start to flow.

Neighbours was consigned to the TV history books in August with the airing of the soap’s final episode after 37 years.

In a sad but still celebratory twist the show and one of its most colourful characters have been acknowledged with international awards.

The show was named Best Daytime Soap and Stefan Dennis, who played Paul Robinson for decades, took home Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards in London.

It was a just reward for Dennis and the production. So much heart and soul went into the final months of the show.

Gone but not forgotten, Neighbours is still picking up awards.

Kellar pushes case for The Living Room

Amanda Keller is clearly hoping the “resting” of her Channel 10 show The Living Room really means it is just taking a short break and hasn’t been put out to pasture for good.

Keller didn’t miss the opportunity – in fact many opportunities – to lean into the “resting” of the lifestyle series on Have You Been Paying Attention on Monday night.

“This is the thing, The Living Room is being rested and I hope we are being rested like a fine red wine or a steak, not resting like the Queen,” she quipped.

In response to a question about Angela Lansbury’s death, Keller deadpanned: “She is resting, we call it.”

There were plenty of other mentions of the “resting” too.

You would almost think that Keller wasn’t happy that the plug had been pulled on her show.

The Traitors flops in the ratings

There is no nice way to say this: The Traitors has flopped for Channel 10.

The show – a Mole like format where ‘traitors’ try to sabotage challenges and eliminate other members, known as the ‘faithful’, of the competition – premiered on Sunday night with 257,000 overnight metro viewers. Its second episode on Monday had 253,000 overnight metro viewers.

At least there is a consistent audience for the Rodger Corser hosted show based on the two episodes so far.