Simon Brake

Of the three I've seen (UK, US and Australia) this one is marginally my favourite, but just ahead of the UK one by a whisker (despite an absence of 'auntie' Claudia and her amazing jumper collection). I think the US one suffered by being a repeat of the UK one, having a mix of self-obsessed stars from previous reality shows stirred into the mix and Alan Cummings, though entertainingly camp, being a bit of distraction from the actual show. Rodger Corser, by contrast, has a vaguely James Bondish charm, not afraid to make jokes but very much the perfect host. The new location and games were also a refreshing change, and I love the more dramatic staging of traitors going off to vote, and people being murdered, as if by a cult who've taken residence in a hotel. There's perhaps an issue with editing - one of the contestants barely appears at all, as if he'd requested to have as much of his material removed from the show, or else had somehow managed to be so offensive throughout the show that they stripped his involvement waaaay back. But there's also the perhaps unavoidable problem a lot of elimination-style reality shows have, where an episode featuring someone's back story for the first time may be because it's the last chance they'll have the option, and so you often get a heads up about who's on their way out (that's not always the case, but generally people don't get kicked out of these sorts of shows until you've seen their backstory). All in all very enjoyable, although the final outcome was perhaps predictable by the time we got to that final episode.