Survivor's cast and crew 'collapsed' during filming due to heat: 'Brutal'

It’s well-known that Survivor is one of the hardest games in the world, with contestants having to live on limited resources and deal with extreme conditions, but it sounds like season nine is turning up the heat - literally.

Ahead of next week’s premiere, host Jonathan LaPaglia has revealed that the biggest obstacle this time around was the weather.

“The temperature was just brutal,” he told TV Tonight. “20 minutes in that heat and my brain just stops thinking.

“In fact, it was so hot this season that we had several players collapse in challenges and several crew go down as well.”

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While last year’s Brains v Brawn season saw contestants endure punishing conditions in the red dirt of Cloncurry, Queensland, production has since moved closer to the Far North Queensland coast in Charters Towers.

“You can definitely see the influence of more water,” Jonathan detailed.

“There’s rivers, creeks, billabongs, bodies of water and definitely more vegetation. It’s still very rugged terrain for the players but it all adds up to something that’s going to be pretty spectacular.”

Season nine of Australian Survivor will see participants going up against their loved ones to win $500,000 in a Blood v Water theme, a first for the Aussie franchise.

Channel Ten announced the full cast earlier this week featuring a number of familiar faces from reality TV, entertainment and sporting backgrounds.

MasterChef fan favourite Khanh Ong will be going up against his sister Amy Ong, while NRL star Michael ‘Croc’ Crocker will be versing his sister-in-law Chrissy Zaremba.

Husband and wife duo Mark Wales and Sam Gash are playing for a second time since they met and fell in love during season four, as well as Andy Meldrum who competed in Champions v Contenders in 2019.

After appearing five times in the US franchise and becoming the first person to win the show twice, Sandra Diaz-Twine is also set to take on Australian Survivor alongside her daughter Nina.

Australian Survivor: Blood v Water premieres 7:30pm Monday January 31.

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