‘The Summit’ Showrunner on ‘Devastating’ First Episode Departure

{Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of “The Summit.”]

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“We didn’t say the word ‘mountain,'” “The Summit” executive producer Kevin Lee told IndieWire of casting the 16 American contestants on the new CBS reality show. That meant those showing up in New Zealand were astonished to discover their task was to climb the New Zealand Fiji Mountains within 14 days. Do it, and they split $1 million. Fail, and they receive nothing.

“We didn’t want athletes,” Lee said. “We wanted regular people because, we hoped — and I think it plays out — when they roll up on an obstacle, a lot of them are like, ‘There’s no way I can do this.’ And seeing people doubt themselves and then overcome it, as cliche as it sounds, it is a powerful thing. And then we don’t want somebody that it’s going to be easy, because that’s not fun to watch. We really had to thread that needle.”

Thread it they did; the contestants are asked to complete terrifying trials throughout “The Summit,” the least of which involve heights. Lee and those involved with the show subjected the potential cast members to a battery of physical and psychological tests; as viewers of the first episode know, however, that wasn’t enough to prevent a shocking departure within hours of the group setting out.

In the first five hours of their trek, Tony abruptly stops and drops to the ground. As producers and medics surround him, something becomes very clear (well, except to fellow competitor Shweta, who assumes he’s faking): Tony won’t be able to continue in the competition.

“I was stunned and heartbroken, to be honest, because you actually get to be friends with them a little bit in casting,” Lee said. “And we knew that it would be hard for him, but his backstory of running marathons to regain his health, to be there for his new child, was really powerful for us. And he visited his doctor, he ran 26 miles, and we’re like, ‘OK, he can do it, he can do it.’ And when he collapsed, it was emotionally devastating, and it was hard to bounce back from, because we had to keep working.”

Forty-eight hours later, Lee spoke to Tony and ascertained that not only was he fine, but he was eager to return to the show should it get a second season. But the moment clarified the others’ personalities in ways the producers couldn’t have predicted. Some were emotional; some were blasé. But the moment is powerful TV either way.

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“This is the beauty of reality TV,” Lee said. “Obviously, we had no idea that would happen. We don’t want to exploit it, but we do want to show what really happened and how people reacted to it. On reality TV, in the moment, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is a disaster; it’s ruining the show.’ It’s oftentimes when you get in the edit, you’re like, ‘Oh, OK. It is still a personal disaster and it still is emotionally hard to see a friend fall down like that, but the storytelling of the show benefited in the sense that, very quickly, characters were revealed.”

That’s hardly the most compelling moment on “The Summit,” which boasts a cast that makes the strategies on “The Traitors” look like schoolyard games. (You’ll find yourselves screaming at the TV more than usual.)

The rewards of achieving basecamp include actual tents and meals, but it comes with a cost: The contestants must vote one of their own off (and pocket their share of the prize money). And though common sense would dictate that the slowest contestants be eliminated first to maximize their chances of making the deadline, that’s not how things play out.

“One of everybody’s concerns in the very beginning was [that it would become] an exercise of them picking off the weakest link,” Lee said. “So we were surprised and shocked that they took out some really strong, smart people even at the beginning. [But] there was a small bit of me saying I’m thankful that they’re not just picking off the weaklings — that would have been a predictable process that would have been less fun to watch.”

But while the competitions climb and bicker, they’re shadowed by a team of crew members who cover the same territory they do — but backward and with cameras. “Most of them were Kiwis, and most of them were mountain climbers, and they were also cameramen,” Lee said. “They brought their own cameras. These are guys that shoot mountain climbing documentaries and they hike the whole way. They’re shooting someone walking by and then they have to run up the hill so they’re not getting in anyone else’s shot, and then they wait for the cast to walk by them again. These people were in shape. If the cast covered 40, 50 miles, these people covered 100, all of it running up the side of a mountain.”