Isaac leaves The Summit with $250,000
Brooke and Lulu also walk away with some of the $490,000 kitty in Nine reality finale.
- Published by David Knox
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Three of the most unlikeliest trekkers on Nine reality series The Summit made it to the top of an icy mountain in New Zealand’s South Island and walked away with major cash prizes.
A fourth trekker, Jans, was cruelly culled in the final episode.
First Nations musician Isaac, 33, from Dubbo, who nearly quit the trek mid series, emerged with the biggest share of a remaining $490,000 kitty, rewarded with $250,000.
10 other cast were eliminated along the hike in a range of votes and tests but were given the power to act as jury, Survivor-style, and decide how the money would be split. As host Jai Courtney told the final trio, “be kind to those on your way up, because you never know who you’re going to meet on your way down”.
Issac said, “To have made it to the top of the summit has been the greatest achievement of my life. I’ve pushed my mind and body to new heights and made some lifelong friends along the way.
“The first thing I’m going to do with the money is buy my mum a new kitchen. Thank you to the teams at Channel 9 and Endemol Shine. You gave me the opportunity to change my life.”
Single Mum and psychology student Brooke, 38 from Adelaide, was awarded $150,000.
“Making it to the top is a massive personal accomplishment for me in more ways than anyone can imagine. The game was gruelling, but I came well prepared with a strategy that took a lot of careful planning each day during the experience.
“To win the money will be life-changing for me. The first thing I will buy is a new car. I’ll put the rest away for a deposit on a house.”
Boxer and mother Lulu, 38, from Fremantle was given the remaining $90,000 after some cast took issue with her decisions to cull them from the contest.
“It means so much to me to be standing on top of the summit. Getting in touch with my grit and determination, chasing the thrills and peaking with excitement. And inspiring my children, family, young girls and women who can do anything. There’s no obstacle too big that we can’t overcome. Anything is possible,” she said.
Across the gruelling 14 day hike, flanked by spectacular scenery, the cast were unaware of reality twists they would face. But that will not escape any future cast should Nine choose to renew the show.
The Summit has also faced something of its own uphill ratings battle, against the likes of Farmer Wants a Wife and MasterChef Australia (from the same production company). Nine remains upbeat about its new format and hopes to see it sold internationally.
In Total TV numbers the show has averaged 720,000.
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15 Responses
Congratulations to Issac! And I am so glad Brooke got $150,000 too. And I really like watching The Summit too. Very interesting show. Hope there’s a season 2.
Wow, the person that did the most work got nothing – Jen The helicopter pilot. I hope she gets a Logie nomination for Best New Talent at least, because there is nobody on TV that can do what she does..
Disappointing ending. Jans, Gemma & Sam were the most worthy of that cash prize, as they were the most capable. The others were simply dragged up the mountain. Wasn’t a huge fan of the Survivor-style ending either. Don’t think I could watch a second season…
Show was rubbish, setting an example for your chidren…yeah on how to steal,lie and backstab! I really liked the host though..i hope he gets another show.
As with the many others I’m very happy for Isaac, he was my favourite from pretty early on and a very deserving winner. I feel a bit for Lulu, but she seemed grateful regardless so good for her. Doubt i’d watch a second season though.
I liked the show in the first couple of episodes but soon got very tired of the constant greedy comments about money and not enough of them actually climbing the summit. Timing didn’t seem right to me either. It takes them hours to get across one of the obstacles and they spend so much time in camps sitting around but they still make up the time? I don’t mean to be nasty but the worse for me was that woman crying about doing it for her kids over and over. That did it for me.
Convoluted concept of a program in the end that alienated instead of invited new viewers. The constant need to change the rules and meddle in the outcomes is a hallmark of this type of television (the end was a joke). With Rush coming soon from the same production company, I reckon it’s going to be plagued with the same problems, and probably the same ratings as well. Maybe this co pro model of making shows only creates confusing messes as everyone tries to get their say?
So true the best at the task never made it as eliminated in the drawn out and tedious evictions, those ran 30 minutes at start and end of most episodes, we tuned in for the scenery and efforts of climbing the mountain not drawn out eliminations.
Turned out the falling behind the schedule didn’t matter either as they gave them a helicopter ride to catch up at one point, one way to climb a mountain I suppose!
The ending left me sour because Lulu deserved more money than that. Ridiculous twist. Done for me. No Season 2.
So ridiculous to take the prize off anyone who reached the Summit, doing only what the show asked them to do.
Worst twist ever, having ex players who mostly have not seen what the three achieved, reduce their prize money.
Who would ever want to apply for a future season? Unfair and a sad way to finish. Would have been much better to finish straight after they summitted. That was the golden moment.
Congratulations to Isaac, so glad you won. All First Nations people will be so proud of you.
So glad Isaac won, didn’t finish watching the series as I was disappointed that it was turned in to personality vs personality show. Perhaps 9 could look at some changes if it continues.
It rated poorly through the season so I would be surprised if it sticks around.
Like you I was disappointed in what the show turned out to be like. I don’t know why I expected this to be anything other than trashy reality tv. This is the same company that producers MAF’s at the end of the day.
What’s worse than the constant sniping and backstabbing was that the contestants clearly didn’t hike the required kms. 14kms a day, including challengers that would have taken half the day to complete meant they couldn’t possibly achieve that. Thought it was odd when contestants would be in completely different outfits halfway through a day. We also never saw Isaac, who was terrified, traverse down the waterfall either.
It didn’t matter if you were fit, smart or even making it to the summit. How much you won came down to the eliminated contestants in the end. What a joke of a show.
I saw Isaac traverse down the waterfall. I’m so glad he got the biggest payout, he was the heart and soul of the show.
Not going to begrudge anyone for winning cash on these types of shows but he was definitely helped by other contestants to get there, after essentially giving up (at least verbally). Would have been great to share that with some that helped him.