CELEBRITY WITH AMANDA KELLER

JONATHAN LAPAGLIA & AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR

Armed with just the barest of essentials – suitcase, hair dyer, coffee maker - Amanda heads into the wilderness on a mission to track down Jonathan LaPaglia, host of the new Australian Survivor. Jonathan talks her through the challenges the castaways face on the new show before Amanda turns the tables and puts Jonathan to the test in her own, slightly less dramatic version of the show: Survivor Lite.

ABOUT AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR A testament to its enduring appeal, Survivor has been produced in almost 50 countries worldwide, the USA series alone has run for 32 seasons over 16 years and shows no signs of stopping. Now the international phenomenon returns to our screens with our own action- packed, homegrown version of Survivor.

Hosted by actor Jonathan LaPaglia, Australian Survivor sees 24 castaways marooned on the pristine yet unforgiving Samoan island of Upolu, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Ranging in age from 23 to 62 years old, the castaways are gathered from all across the country, from all different backgrounds, to compete over 55 days, in a battle against the elements, and each other.

The contestants are initially divided into three tribes of eight, each named after a beach in Samoa: Aganoa, Saanapu and Vavau. The tribes face off in physical and mental challenges; some for rewards of food, shelter or other useful items, other challenges are for immunity at the Tribal Council. To win, players will need to display a mix of physical strength, mental agility and tactical prowess as the losing tribes must gather at the Tribal Council to debrief about the challenges with Jonathan, before casting their votes to eliminate one of their own tribe members. Alliances with be formed, tested, broken and reshuffled.

Contestants also have the opportunity to win personal immunity - around the island there are a number of hidden immunity items, these idols, when played at Tribal Council, mean votes cannot be cast against those who hold them.

But it won’t just take grit and smarts to win the game; the players will also need to demonstrate cunning, guile, and a certain emotional ruthlessness as over the weeks, as more players are voted off and numbers begin to dwindle, the tribes will be merged from three to two, and eventually to just one tribe, at which point it will be every castaway for themselves. But the social game-play will not stop there as finally, when there are only two players left standing, the power will shift back to the nine castaways most recently voted off the island – they will form the jury who decide who will win the grand prize of $500,000 and be named the sole survivor.

Australian Survivor airs on Network Ten at 7:30pm Sunday and Monday nights.

ABOUT JONATHAN LAPAGLIA

Born 31 August 1969 in Adelaide, Jonathan LaPaglia is best known to Australian audiences

as an actor but his first profession was actually as a doctor – he worked as an emergency- room physician for a number of years before giving it away to follow in his older brother Anthony LaPaglia’s footsteps.

Jonathan moved to the United States in the mid-nineties to study acting and landed his first role a couple of years later in TV series New York Undercover. Following that breakthrough he worked steadily on numerous US series including Cold Case, Burn Notice, Castle, Bones, NCIS and The Sopranos.

In 2011 Jonathan returned home to star as Hector in the ABC adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’ acclaimed novel The Slap. For his first-ever Australian production, Jonathan found that after so long away, he needed to hire a dialect coach to help him lose his acquired Californian twang. He has since starred in other popular local dramas Love Child and Underbelly.

In April 2016 Jonathan was announced as the host of Network Ten’s reboot of Australian Survivor. It was a pick that surprised many, not least Jonathan himself having never hosted before but loving a challenge, he jumped at the chance. To prepare for the show he binged on some of the 32 seasons of the American series, so much so that his wife and 11 year-old daughter also became obsessed with the show.

To further prepare for the role Jonathan got the chance to pick the brain of American Survivor host and executive producer Jeff Probst. The pair met over coffee where Jonathan grilled Jeff about the complexities of the role, especially how to helm the critical tribal councils. “His job in that part of the show is to try and peel back layers and press buttons to try and expose people”.

On his transition to hosting duties Jonathan has said “It’s been very strange… normally I have a script to fall back on, a character I need to create. There’s no such things to hide behind, it’s just me out there. That’s been daunting. Because it’s reality there’s no second takes.”

Jonathan has described hosting Australian Survivor as one of the hardest jobs he has ever done – combining a crazy schedule, the complexities and psychology of wrangling the contestants, and the pressure to make an iconic role his own. Despite the challenges of hosting he said there is no way he would ever want to take part as a castaway "It's so hard what those guys do. Stuck on a beach for 55 days, no way."

WEBLINKS

For more information visit: http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/australian-survivor