Jonathon LaPaglia: “This challenge did not play out as depicted in the edit.”
Australian Survivor host responds to criticism, saying a challenge was fair, if re-edited in post-production.
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Australian Survivor host Jonathon LaPaglia has responded to online criticism of a challenge in which Exile Island contestant Daisy missed out on a chance to re-enter the game.
Some viewers took aim at a slow countdown during which her stack of 12 discs tumbled. They claim he was not so hurried to count from 3 to 1 when Simon completed his stack, and subsequently re-entered the game.
On Instagram he wrote, “I see a lot of people upset at my counting in this challenge but the anger seems misdirected. I can assure you I am a staunch defender of the integrity of the game and do everything I can to make sure it is fair on the floor. However once it’s shot, it’s out of my hands.
“This challenge did not play out as depicted in the edit,” he revealed.
“Originally the goal was to stack 12 discs. But after almost 2 hours of failed attempts (Simon was close, you can see his stack of 12 falling in the 3rd pic) a decision was made to reset and do a sudden death playoff; whoever had the most discs stacked in 10 minutes wins.
“Simon undoubtedly won the playoff, no question. Now I guess a decision was made in post production to edit out the playoff and create a more exciting ‘horse race’ (even though in reality Simon and Daisy were not neck and neck at that point). In doing so they grabbed a countdown from somewhere else for Daisy. That’s why they don’t sound the same.
“That being said, Simon won fair and square. And 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. #SurvivorAU”
This week some viewers also questioned Pia using a second hand to grip onto a bar after Simon had slipped into the ocean.
But there was also another questionable moment when Jonathan LaPaglia told contestants they must hold with just on hand. After he counted them down from 3 to 1, Simon was late to release his second hand. Three other contestants were all holding with a single hand in the allotted time.
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3 Responses
I know we all like to be a bit cynical about how edited shows are, but I’ve always felt that 10 was among the better networks of being as authentic as possible – e.g. Masterchef, and early Bachelor/Bachelorette. Now, the level of ‘editing’ and egging on by producers (Bachelor since Warner has been in control) is a bit of a concern. In terms of this one, why couldn’t they have just put the 2 hr marker on the screen and told the viewer how the reset worked.
I think Jonathan needs to be commended on these challenges. How he manages to stand there and commentate on people holding up a sand bag or holding onto a pole would be so hard when the contestants aren’t really moving or doing a lot.
Honestly, while I noticed the apparent speed difference of the countdown, it was clear to me with the quality of the tightness of each word that it was edited so I felt it was called fairly on the day. However, I can totally see how people not ‘attuned’ to the magic of television would call foul. I think including the sudden death in the narrative would leave the show open to more decries of foul with viewers debating whether the right moment to stop and reset was fair and so forth. So basically, the edit-team almost got it right.