Bookies betting on Survival of the Fittest to flop
While ITV will be hoping for another rating banker, the bookies are not so sure.
“ITV2’s younger audience will no doubt relish the escapism this immersive physical game show from sunny South Africa will provide. Like Love Island before it, this series’ nightly mixture of fun challenges and burgeoning relationships ought to be must see.” – Head of Digital Channels and Acquisitions ITV, Paul Mortimer
Survival of the Fittest sees a team of Boys and a team of Girls go head-to-head to find out which sex will come out on top. The aim of the game is to stay on your team until the end to be in with a chance of winning a share of £40.000. The show is to be based around a lodge in the Limpopo region of South Africa. House highlights include, as revealed by ITV yesterday, over sixty cameras to catch all the action from the luxurious outdoor bathroom, pool and lake to all the internal nooks and crannies in the building.
The teams will compete in physical and mental challenges while the public will help to decide who gets replaced by a new team member. There’s everything to play for, but as all the contestants are single, loyalties will be put to the test in the ultimate battle of the sexes. Hosted by Laura Whitmore and from the makers of Love Island, this brand new stripped entertainment series will give viewers the power to decide who stays in the competition, who goes home, and which sex ultimately comes out on top.
“It’s a brand new format and there hasn’t been a show quite like this on TV. It is the perfect time of year for the show to be on because we are set under the South African sun in the savannah, so while it’s miserable weather in the UK, you can watch some lovely people in some glorious surroundings. The really interesting thing is the battle of the sexes element.” – host Laura Whitmore
ITV is asking viewers to tune in regularly to find out whether the Girls and Boys can stay loyal to their team and choose mates before dates. Will they keep their friends close and their enemies closer? Or will they end up in bed with the enemy? Bookies seem to think we’ll just not really care either way.
With reality show Love Island proving to be everyone’s ‘type on paper’, telly bosses will be hoping to cash-in on another sun and sex-filled show, but bookmakers don’t see Survival of the Fittest living up to its name and extending beyond its debut series. Paddy Power fancies the show to be ‘sacked off’ at the end of this season, with odds of 5/4 that the show will not be re-commissioned.
Survival of the Fittest may be hoping to take inspiration from the success of Love Island, and the chances that a star from the villa will join the show midway through the series are rated odds-on at 1/12. The boys are hot favourites to claim victory in the new series (8/13), which sees groups of boys and girls pitted against each other across a range of tasks for a chance to win £50,000.
I’m A Celebrity winner Geogria Toffolo’s ex-boyfriend James Middleton is the favourite to be the highest placed male (5/2), ahead of Tristan Jones (3/1). The chance of a girl claiming victory is rated at 6/5, with Dani Dyer the favourite among the girls (5/2).
And, with plenty of ‘grafting’ expected on the show, punters can get odds of 12/1 that a couple gets married during 2018, with odds of 20/1 for a Survival of the Fittest baby being announced before the end of the year.
“Viewers might already have put all their eggs in the Love Island basket, so we think there’s a chance that the show won’t quite hit the dizzy heights achieved by the likes of Chris and Kem. It remains to be seen if viewers will consider Survival of the Fittest nothing more than a poor man’s Love Island and choose to ‘pie’ the new show. As the series goes on, we’ll find out how appropriate the show’s name really is.” – Spokesman for Paddy Power
