‘The Summit’ Review: Reality Show Tests Mettle in New Zealand

The Summit is a competition series set in New Zealand, where 16 Americans have 14 days to climb a mountain, which includes a 100-mile hike. Each contestant has one-sixteenth of $1 million in their backpack. If one leaves for a medical reason, their share of the cash disappears. If they are voted out, it is divided up among the remaining contestants.

“It will be the ultimate test of their character and courage,” host Manu Bennett said.

The scenery is breathtaking (the ubiquitous mountain seems all too fitting for a show on a Paramount Global network), and the contestants offer some intriguing individuals, including Jennye, a mixed martial arts referee; Therron, a waiter; and Rose, a stay-at-home mother with a background she does not reveal to her colleagues — flying a helicopter in combat.

“I used to be a badass, and I’m looking to find that again in myself here,” she shares.

One challenge sees two contestants at a time cross a scary rope bridge high above the rocky ground, though the tension is alleviated a bit in that they are affixed to ropes that will prevent an injurious fall.

The bridge crossing sees one contestant as the odd one out after everyone else has gone, and the rest of the group must vote to leave them there, and save some time, or figure out a way to get them over to their side and perhaps delay their arrival at the next camp.

Nine checkpoint camps are set up along the way, and if the group moves too slowly to make one, they sleep in “bivy camps”— sleeping bags, drinking from the creek, eating freeze-dried food. The arrangements at the checkpoint camps, including tents and wine, are far more inviting.

But each checkpoint camp also features a vote, which sees the loser sent home, and their cash divided up. Unlike on Survivor , where ballots are stealthily slipped into an urn during tribal council, voting is a show of hands out in the open.

Is The Summit worth watching? It might be. A handful of contestants reveals themselves early on to be entertaining to watch. Host Bennett, an actor, is gruff, and the pilot does not reveal much of his personality other than no-nonsense.

And while the Summit format borrows from other competition series, the presence of lots of cash on each contestant as they hike makes for a unique dynamic.