Inside Australian Survivor’s most controversial season ever

Challenge controversies, a host gone rogue, a brutal freak accident and whispers of a secret romance — when did Survivor get so controversial?

Move over MAFS and bye-bye The Bach — when did Australian Survivor become the most controversial reality series on TV?

Ten’s reboot of the show — previously a cult favourite among Aussies who’ve grown up with the US original — has exploded this season, with sneaky tactics, weekly controversies and even whispers of a secret island romance …

BOLD-FACED LIES

Many players hit the ground running with pre-prepared lies.

It became apparent very early on that this would be an Australian Survivor season unlike any that had gone before, with several contestants blatantly lying about key elements of their lives back at home from day one in the game.

Noosa marketing executive Andy Meldrum‘s first lie came on day one when the self-described Survivor superman told his tribemates he was a golf and travel writer. His reasoning: Who’s going to trust a marketing exec?

“It meant that around the campfire at night, instead of having to talk about corporate marketing and advertising, which would bore anyone, I got to talk about golf or travel,” he explained.

But Meldrum told news.com.au a “much better lie” came courtesy of under-the-radar contestant Hannah Pentreath, who told her tribe she was a hairdresser and was eliminated after 22 days without her true profession — police officer — ever being found out.

“Everyone is going to overlook me because of my personality and assume I’m not there to play hard. I’ll be the threat they don’t see, right in front of them,” she said.

Perhaps this season’s weirdest lie has come from Perth ice-cream maker Harry Hills, who told everyone on day one he had a young son named Oscar at home, an invention designed to make him appear softer and more relatable to his tribemates.

Harry’s lie was finally exposed during a lively tribal council on day 20, but his tribemates had their suspicions almost immediately.

Shaun Hampson was sitting on a supermodel secret. Picture: Nigel Wright.

And former AFL player Shaun Hampson admitted he tried desperately to keep his sporting background — and the fact his partner is supermodel Megan Gale — a secret.

“I went into the game with (lying) being a real possibility for me. Going onto the Contenders tribe, I thought that if they heard, ‘Hi I’m Shaun, I played 11.5 years of AFL’, they’d immediately be like, ‘Well you don’t belong here’,” he said.

“I didn’t mention Megan … nobody asked, ‘Who’s your partner, what does your partner do?’ so I just sort of left it. I didn’t want to walk in and go, ‘Hey guys, my partner’s Megan Gale!’ That felt strange,” he said.

CHALLENGE CONTROVERSY

Pia and Luke were the last two left standing — but many viewers thought the wrong person won.

Survivor favourite Pia Miranda took home her first immunity challenge win during last Monday night’s episode — but controversy clouded her win, with some angry viewers labelling her a cheat.

The dispute was born out of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scenes in the closing seconds of the immunity challenge, with Survivor fans reaching for the pause button to determine what had happened — and many claiming that Luke Toki was the real winner.

Survivor’s production company Endemol Shine Australia backed the actress in the wake of the controversy, telling news.com.au that “Pia was the winner of the challenge. All that were there saw the win play out this way”.

Miranda herself also addressed the controversy, insisting she had “no reason to cheat.”

Viewers thought differently — more than 17,000 voted in our reader poll about the challenge, with 83 per cent believing Luke to be the rightful winner.

UNSPORTSMANLIKE TACTICS

Spoiler: He was throwing it.

Contestants deliberately trying to lose challenges made for a controversial development this season.

Contenders tribe member Matt Farrelly revealed in scenes that never made it to air earlier this season his tribe had devised a secret plan to throw challenges once the tribes had swapped so they could easily pick off the Champions.

“We knew the tribe swap was coming, and the Contenders — mostly Shaun and Daisy — got everyone together and said, ‘Let’s agree to all throw the challenges and get rid of all the Champions because we have a numbers advantage’,” he confessed.

“I told them straight up, ‘I don’t think I can throw a challenge’. It’s not my mindset or how I play.

“Seeing it happen on the show … some of those Champions I really have a lot of respect for, and I didn’t expect it from them,” he said.

A BRUTAL INJURY

Host Jonathan LaPaglia (right) helps Ross Clarke-Jones off the course.

Big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones suffered the season’s most brutal exit, forced to leave the competition due to a horrific mid-challenge injury that left him screaming in pain.

Ross broke an ankle after tumbling to the ground when the rope he was swinging on during an immunity challenge snapped.

He told news.com.au he’s still got many months of recovery ahead of him for the injury, which happened in early June.

“I’ve seen people getting hurt on this show before but not due to a failure in one of the challenges. The rope broke. There’s rigorous testing, they use crash test dummies and take every precaution to make it safe, but this just happened, and it’s a bummer … it’s a bummer it was me,” he said.

An Endemol Shine Australia statement provided to news.com.au described the accident as a “technical fault” and reiterated the production’s focus on safety-testing each challenge.

“Endemol Shine Australia takes the health and safety of our Survivor contestants very seriously. Challenges are conducted under safety supervision and tested numerous times to avoid injuries. Contestants also have constant medical care from the series doctor and paramedics.”

LAPAGLIA GOES ROGUE

LaPaglia’s not afraid to veer off script. Picture: Nigel Wright

No, we’re not just talking about the host’s well-documented love of slipping X-rated double entendres into his challenge commentating. LaPaglia’s also shown a remarkable willingness to go off script while publicising Survivor, getting candid about what he sees as the show’s weaknesses and blind spots.

There was his remarkable appearance on ABC radio program Stop Everything! last month, in which he copped a grilling about the lack of diversity among contestants — and readily agreed with the critiques.

“I’ve never really got a satisfactory answer on it (the diversity question),” he said. “Basically I’m told that there aren’t that many people from minority cultures that apply, and whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but that’s kind of what I’m told.

“The producers probably want to stab me right now but … to disagree would be disingenuous right? I mean, it’s hard to deny the obvious, it does feel very whitewashed, yes.”

In a statement to news.com.au, a Network 10 spokeswoman said it took its “commitment to diversity seriously”.

And then this week, LaPaglia again spoke up to defend the result of another controversial challenge — at the same time conceding “the editing wasn’t as sharp as it could have been”.

In a detailed Instagram post, LaPaglia gave viewers a peek behind the reality TV curtain, revealing that a challenge that played out in minutes on screen had, in fact, gone on for two agonising hours before a decision was made to wrap up with a “sudden-death round”.

“Now I guess a decision was made in post production to edit out the playoff and create a more exciting ‘horse race’” he wrote. “Sometimes things are rearranged in the edit to make it more exciting for the viewer. That doesn’t mean it’s rigged. In this case it means the editing wasn’t as sharp as it could have been.”

ROMANCE RUMOURS

John and Daisy: We ship it.

It’s the surprising question Daisy Richardson admits she’s been asked a whole lot since her eviction from the show: Are she and fellow contestant Johnny a couple?

Nova host Chrissie Swan even referenced the “rumours” while interviewing Survivor contestant Simon Black on-air this week, telling him “If I’ve heard rumours then surely you have too.”

Black conceded that during their time in Jury Villa, “their villas are separated by about 1500 metres, so maybe they were sneaking out through the night? They’re both single, they’re both warm blooded.”

Richardson told news.com.au this week she was slightly exasperated by the rumours.

“The answer is no, unfortunately. John is a good-looking guy, I’ll give him that. But the thing about John and I is, we are so bloody similar. We used to banter at each other so much that it would just get personal, and we’d need to take a few minutes and cool off and then come back to each other. I love Johnny boy dearly, but there’s no kissing in the palm trees I’m afraid,” she revealed.

A RATINGS WINNER

Janine wins the immunity necklace.

All these headline-making moments have added up to a big hit for Ten, with Australian Survivor enjoying its biggest ratings to date this season. Some nights it’s even come close to beating Nine’s reno behemoth The Block — and whoever’s running the Australian Survivor Twitter account is sure enjoying roasting the rival show:

lol cute. can't wait to see what colour sheets they pick for the beds 😱 #SurvivorAU https://t.co/XaDpnN0tNX

— Australian Survivor (@Survivor_AU) September 2, 2019

Asked about the show’s success this season, a Network 10 spokesperson told news.com.au: “Australians are embracing Australian Survivor like never before. The gameplay, the twists and turns, the physical challenges, the jeopardy, the characters, and the high production values, have all combined to make this season the most watched season of Australian Survivor.”

“The Champions v Contenders cast has opened the show up to a new breed of Survivor viewers that hadn’t previously watched the show. We are thrilled that Survivor fans new and old are gripped by this season and the game is only starting to heat up as we head into the final weeks.”

Who do you think should take home the $500,000 and title of sole Survivor? Vote in our poll below:

With only four episodes to go this season, Australian Survivor continues 7.30pm Monday and Tuesday on Ten.