Stuff of legends
In the new Celebrity Treasure Island series, 21 castaways, including Sir Wayne Shelford, vie to win $100,000 for the charity of their choice.
This year’s Celebrity Treasure Island isn’t actually on a tropical isle but a Far North beach somewhere. So, surely a new name is required. Perhaps “Celebrity Freedom Camping”?
And what about the games, which in the previous series were, well, a bit Robinson Crusoe. Something more fitting to the location? How about the campervan sewage tank carry-and-sprint? The galeforce-wind tent pitching? The tinny-on-a-trailer backing? Or toheroa scooping, kauri gum digging, pūkeko herding, the best distance surf cast or the togs-togs-undies dash to the dairy?
This series was filmed before lockdown. Still, a challenge involving a roadblock where competitors face questioning by a guy in a hi-vis vest about whether they have just driven up from Auckland would have given things a contemporary edge.
The new series features 21 castaways who will start out in three teams, all vying to win $100,000 for a charity of their choice. That’s up from the 16 who went to Fiji in the 2019 revival of the series, and it will mean a long stay in its three-nights-a-week slot as the castaways get sent home, or possibly to a motel down the road.
As always, some of the celebs will cause some viewers to go, “Who?” While others will make some go, “Didn’t he bring a shirt?”
The ensemble features an impressive double – a former All Blacks captain in Sir Wayne “Buck” Shelford and a former Kiwis skipper in Richie Barnett. Be prepared for a revived “bring back Buck” campaign if things go badly. Be prepared for hosts Matt Chisholm and Bree Tomasel to use the phrase “absolute legend” to drinking-game levels in their commentary.
Among the other former sports stars involved are Black Fern Huriana Manuel, swimmer Anna Simcic, basketballer Casey Frank and one-time Warrior turned social-media guy Johnny Tuivasa-Sheck.
Familiar television faces include Candy Lane, Art Green, Angela Bloomfield, JJ Fong, Kimberley Crossman, Joe Naufahu, Brynley Stent, Chris Parker and Tammy Davis. From radio and comedy, there’s Tegan Yorwarth, Joe Daymond and Lana Searle. Rounding out the field, and possibly doing wonders for their Instagram following, are dancer Lance Savali, influencer and swimwear designer Edna Swart and former Miss World NZ and Māori Television reporter Jess Tyson. l
Celebrity Treasure Island, TVNZ 2, Monday to Wednesday, , 7.30pm.