SAS Australia will return for its new season on Monday, 13 September at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7plus.
Mediaweek caught up with Seven Network executive producer Sylvia D’Souza to talk about what fans can expect from the new season and how the production went for one of Australia’s most brutal reality TV shows.
SAS Australia is one of the highest risk shows in the country to produce and D’Souza said that the production had to approach every aspect very carefully.
“It seems quite dangerous. logistically it’s a beast to pursue. Once the celebrities are hooded on minute one of day one, everything has to be running smoothly and has to be organised. They are handed over to Ant (Middleton, the DS chief instructor) and we only see them from afar from that.
“Every task is scrutinised from all aspects of safety. But the celebrities are aware there’s a risk of injury, and we can’t guarantee that won’t happen. Some celebrities have said no to coming onto the show because of this. We are asking people to test their limits, and we need to deliver that as safely as possible.”
Sylvia D’Souza
Episode one got off to a bang and D’Souza said that it is about balancing the physical aspects and emotional aspects of the show.
“We always want to have the challenges, and we do that right off the bat with episode one with tear gas. I don’t think anyone expected to be tear gassed. To be honest, that was really difficult to watch on the sidelines. There were some really extreme reactions, and others managed to hold together completely fine. It’s not who you would expect to be as well.
“The other aspect of the show we saw resonated with the audience were the themes and learnings from the shows around mindset, courage, determination. All the DS of Billy, Foxy Ollie and Ant have gone through traumatic experiences and personal mistakes, which they share more of this series. I think people have preconceived ideas about the celebrities and who they are. And they then get to reveal their true character.”
When asked if the celebrities were more prepared this season after seeing what the recruits went through last year, D’Souza joked ‘you would think that’.
“It was 50/50 in the first series – a lot of them didn’t know what to expect, and it’s about mental resilience. Some of them in this second series will be better mentally prepared, you can see that, but I don’t know if that’s because they saw the previous series, or that’s just who they are. It is not just the physical limits that we’re testing. It’s their mental limits, and it’s really surprising and it’s not who you expect.”
Following off the success of season one of SAS Australia, D’Souza said that she still identified ways that she could improve the show in its second season after listening to audience feedback.
“There was a lot of questions about base life and what it was really like. Did the celebrities really have no hot water? No flushing toilets? Camp beds? And do they really only have two sets of clothes, which they had to wash themselves? They were the questions I was asked a lot.
“We installed more cameras in base camp to capture those moments. Moments of celebrities and their natural reactions and the little chats that they have with each other. I honestly don’t think people really believe this is the real deal, and that there is no hotel room that the celebrities go to at night. Some celebrities don’t believe it either. In this series, I did have one ask me if gluten-free meals are served. So, it is a massive shock.”
When asked what the most surprising thing about this series was, D’Souza pointed to two main things
“The mouse plague was one. That was terrible. We had hundreds of mice and mice traps were everywhere, including the DS dorms and recruits. In the series, you’ll see where there are mice running over recruits faces as they slept and nibbling at them.
“The other thing that surprised me was the women in this series, especially Kerri Pottharst, who’s our oldest recruit to date, she goes further than I expected. It just goes to show how mentally strong she is, which is absolutely impressive to me. Also, Jana Pittman had a baby six months ago, before she came on, and I find that incredibly humbling. She’s a doctor with three kids and a baby. I just don’t know how she did it. It’s just very inspiring.”
The new season of SAS Australia storms onto screens Monday, 13 September at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7plus.