The new season of SAS Australia will return on Monday, 21 February at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7plus.
The new series will see 17 celebrities undertake one of the toughest tests of their lives as they face a series of physical and psychological tests from the real SAS selection process.
Mediaweek caught up with Seven Network executive producer Sylvia D’Souza to talk about what to expect from this new season.
SAS Australia doesn’t mess around, inside of the first five minutes of the first episode, the show sets each of the recruits on fire to test their resolve. When asked if she was nervous when setting celebrities on fire, D’Souza said that they just have to hope for the best.
“We always have all these safety checks and everything is tested beforehand. But when it happens and it’s in the hands of Ant (Middleton), we just have to go along with the ride. It’s sometimes hard to watch, Ebanie Bridges has a real fear of fire, she can’t light a gas stove or birthday candles and I was really worried for her and her reaction was extraordinary.”
While the production team doesn’t have much influence during filming after handing over the recruits, D’Souza said that there is a lot of back and forth in pre-production about what will unfold.
“It is Ants show, so he gives us a bit of a brief. One of the things that Ant always wants to do is have tougher challenges at the start. Because it helps set the bar early on for recruits that the show is real. That’s why we started with that (setting recruits on fire).”
New DS means big changes
In this series, Ant Middleton returns as the chief instructor alongside returning DS (Directing Staff) Ollie Ollerton and two new DS in retired US Navy SEAL Clint Emerson and former British Special Forces soldier Dean Stott. D’Souza said that having new members of the directing staff has a significant impact on the show.
“We’ve got two new DS’. Thanks to their backgrounds we’ve now got 14 new tasks which was a challenge for the production. One time we kidnap the celebrity and find them thrown into a boot of a car and hope that they remembered the clue that Ant gave them. And in another on Melissa Wu comes out of it and collapses and is unconscious and honestly, that moment was one of the scariest of my life. The stakes are higher. The challenges are riskier. But there are always medics close by.”
SAS Australia: Keeping a winning formula
The series is now in its third season, and when asked how the show has evolved in that time, D’Souza said that it was important to remember what the show is about.
“The voice for SAS is two things. The first is making sure that the show is tough and that the terrain is hard and isolated. It needs to test the mental and physical abilities of the recruit. That’s the point of the show. And the second thing is getting the right balance of these recruits and celebrities. We don’t want just athletes, we don’t want just entertainers, it is getting that mix.”
D’Souza said that one thing that is noticeable about this new season, however, is the size of the recruits personalities.
“The personalities in the dorms are bigger. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the number of arguments in a dorm as much as this series. Some recruits just don’t get along and they weren’t shy about expressing their opinions to each other.”