It was not as high-profile as Big Brother or Celebrity Love Island, but Channel 4's Shipwrecked - Battle of the Islands, which came to a conclusion yesterday, was a sleeper hit with the hung-over across the country, writes Leigh Holmwood.
The reality show, which saw two teams of good-looking twenty-somethings dumped on two competing islands in the South Pacific, became the main reason to watch Channel 4's T4 strand, which many have complained has lost a lot of its spark. Airing at lunchtime on a Sunday, it became the alarm call after a big night out the night before.
The show, made by RDF, was one of the first reality series when it originally launched in 2000. It lasted for three series, and in the process made a D-list celebrity out of Jeff Brazier, Jade Goody's former partner, before being dumped. However, Channel 4 bosses decided to resurrect it with a new format in which two teams - the sharks and the tigers - had to convince a weekly new recruit to choose their island to stay on with the island with the most inhabitants at the end of the series winning £70,000.
The mammoth run of the show - it started in early January and finally drew to a close yesterday - saw viewers bitterly divided between the tigers and sharks. The tigers were more organized, having constructed a luxury camp, while the more rough and ready sharks, whose lodgings leaked, were the perennial underdogs.
Going into yesterday's episode, both islands had 14 inhabitants apiece, with the final new recruit, a scouser called Jenni, being left with the decision of who to stay with and in the process deciding the winner. Jenni sided with the underdogs and the sharks were crowned the winners.
Following strong ratings - the final yesterday pulled in 1 million viewers and a 10.9 per cent share - Channel 4 has already ordered a new 20-part series for next year in a deal thought to be worth £2.5 million. Shooting begins in the summer and ads for new castaways have already been published, with anyone fancying five months in the Cook Islands being encouraged to apply now.
Meanwhile, the series has been picked up by Australia's Nine network and TVNZ in New Zealand, and most interestingly, by BBC America in the US. It debuts there this summer. What the yanks will make of a group of bickering Brits on two desert islands is anyone's guess.
