The Rundown: Swath of celebrities fly out to film Survivor and The Challenge

The stars set to compete on Survivor and The Challenge have been outed as the casts flew out of Australia to remote locations.

A celebrity airlift to the South Pacific has been happening in the past week with cast flying out of Australia bound for remote settings for the filming of both Australian Survivor and The Challenge.

The Challenge is filming in Argentina with former Olympian Emily Seebohm, Jack Vidgen, Cyrell Paule, Suzan Mutesi, Kiki Morris, Megan Marx, Brittany Hockley, Big Brother Australia’s Marley Biyendolo and “fake influencer” David Subritzky all snapped by the Daily Mail at the airport on departure.

Emily Seebohm is filming new reality show The Challenge in Argentina. Picture: Getty Images

She will be up against other celebrities including Jack Vidgen. Picture: Getty Images

The show, which is based on a US format and has contestants – usually former reality stars – taking part in a variety of challenges to avoid elimination, will be hosted by Brihony Dawson who is non-binary.

Meanwhile the cast of Australian Survivor has also been on the move in recent days with Anjali Rao, David Zaharakis, Jordie Hansen, Shaun Hampson and George from Bankstown (George Mladenov) heading for Samoa.

Coincidently Studio 10’s Daniel Doody has also headed to Samoa this week, but Ten says that is just so he can film a travel segment for the low-rating chat show … OK.

Former Essendon player David Zaharakis, pictured with partner Amy Pejkovic, is living up on Survivor.

After taking the show by storm last season Jordie Hansen is backing up for another go.

The Block responds to ‘too white’ criticism

The most inclusive and culturally diverse season ever of The Block launches on Sunday.

For years The Block has been criticised in online groups and in the comment section of articles that it was “too white” and lacked diversity.

The show has stepped up in the casting department this season with best mates Omar and Oz taking on the “green change” challenge at Gisborne South.

The men are practising Muslims and observed Ramadan during filming. The pair said one of the reasons they signed up for the show was to give visibility on television to young Muslim Australians.

The Block's Omar and Oz observed Ramadan during filming.

“We are Muslim and I am Lebanese, but I am Australian Lebanese,” Oz said.

“I’m a proud Australian and I want to show what two Muslim Aussies can do.”

Oz, a building maintenance manager from Sydney, said his religion was very important to him and his family and he wanted to provide a positive representation of Muslim Australians on television.

“Yes, we pray five times a day, but we feed the poor and we are good to others,” he said.

“We respect our neighbours regardless of what nationality or country they are from.”

Toadie to tradie

Neighbours favourite Ryan Moloney has wasted no time in starting his new life following the end of the much-loved soap.

Moloney is studying Civil Construction with Foresite Training.

“Well, Neighbours has finished, so it is time for my next costume change … got to love high vis,” Moloney posted on his social media.

Moloney also is a beekeeper with his honey available via his Beach Box Honey website. It is delicious!

Former Neighbours star Ryan Moloney on site at his new construction training.

Revealing Neighbours’ secrets got me cancelled

Former Neighbours star Nicola Charles believes blowing the lid on her co-stars secret eating disorders and drug use during the heady days of the show in the early 2000s was one of the reasons she was given the cold shoulder from the soap’s grand finale.

“In my autobiography I did talk about the fact that as a young actress at the age of 25 it was really upsetting to see how many young actresses on the show were doing drugs to stay skinny and that I was offered drugs in the bathroom, in the wardrobe room and that kind of thing and the ambulance was arriving to cart them off,” Charles told Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast.

“That was just the truth of being part of television and movies and it is the side that is not talked about because you have to stay gorgeous at all costs. I guess they thought ‘well, stuff you’.”

In her book, Soap Star, Charles did recount an actor being taken off set by an ambulance during her years playing Sarah Beaumont.

Nicola Charles didn’t hold back about the behind the scenes issues on Neighbours. Picture: Jason Edwards

“And so, as I sat holding the frail and bony hand of an actress on the green room couch, waiting for the ambulance to arrive, I couldn’t help but have sympathy for her,” she wrote.

“She was verging on anorexic to achieve a look that actresses, like on TV, chiselled facial features, skinny arms and a more youthful appearance, and her low weight made me concerned about how she was going to cope.

“The paramedics arrived and took her away. It seemed as though picking up limp actresses

recognisable from TV from a couch was all in a day’s work for them and they didn’t bat an eyelid.

“But the saddest part of the whole event was the very next day.

“I had gone into the loo quickly before a scene to find the same actress stood with another in a cubicle with the door open.

“Maybe what she said next was a nod to the help I had given her the previous day, maybe it was the offering of a secret she felt she held to help me keep my weight down, or maybe it was my only chance to be indoctrinated into the secret actress club, but she offered me speed.”

Charles wrote that she declined the offer and was told by another cast member to never speak of the toilet encounter.

Ramsay St to Masked Singer

Fresh from his much-heralded return to Ramsay St for the final episode of Neighbours, word is Jason Donovan has another Australian TV role up his sleeve.

Donovan is rumoured to be one of the stars taking part in The Masked Singer.

The Masked Singer was filmed in Sydney in early July. Donovan kicked off the UK tour of the stage musical Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Blackpool on July 25.

Rumours are rife that Jason Donovan used his return to Neighbours to film a spot on the Masked Singer.

It would have been a tight turnaround for him to do the Masked Singer and be back in the UK in time for final rehearsals for the stage production, but anything is possible.

And he does fit one of the clues that have been teased by the show, that of a multiple Logie winner.

Donovan has collected three Logies during his career.

The Masked Singer starts on Sunday on Channel 10.

On the hunt for contestants

As tipped, Channel 10 has wasted little time in greenlighting a new season of Hunted Australia.

Season one wrapped on Tuesday with two contestants, Rob and Stathi, making it to the “extraction” point and sharing in the $100,000 prize.

Casting is now open for season two and I suspect there will be no shortage of people wanting to give this show a crack.

Online commentary has seen a lot of chat along the lines of “I could do this”, and “why wouldn’t they do that?” so now is the time for all those wannabe fugitives to sign up and show us what you have got.

New 60 Minutes recruit

The reporting ranks of 60 Minutes is growing with Amelia Adams joining the show later this year.

Adams has been a journalist for more than 20 years, the past 13 with Channel 9.

She has spent the past four years as Nine’s European and North American correspondent.

This is Your Life

While no new episodes have been commissioned at this stage, you would be betting that there will be another round of This Is Your Life specials next year.

Word is calls have already been made to a few well-known celebrities of a certain vintage to ask if they would consider being celebrated by the show should further episodes get the thumbs up.

Ian Thorpe was the subject of the first This Is Your Life special on Channel 7 and the network has three more up its sleeve to roll out later this year.