The Inheritance contestant Zara burst into tears as fellow competitors argued with her over who would get the prize money during the reality gameshow’s first episode.
The Channel 4 show, which is co-produced by Traitors creator Studio Lambert, sees 13 strangers summoned to a stately home to compete for part of the fortune left in the will of Elizabeth Hurley’s character, the Deceased, with the money being overseen by her executor, Robert Rinder.
Its first episode saw players challenged to collect bottles of wine and prepare them for collection in three hours, in order to bank cash, before being asked to decide which of one them deserved to take the £5,600 prize at the end of Sunday’s show.
Contestants were split into two groups, one which was sent to a lake, where they had to swim to collect bottles of wine, while another was sent to a cellar to match sample bottles with the correct barrels by tasting the wine.
Afterwards four players put themselves forward as potential “prime beneficiaries”, the only contestant who can receive the money, in Jesse, Matt, Zara and Emma, with the rest of the contestants then asked to quiz them on why they should receive the prize.
Asked why she should get the money, Zara told the other players: “I feel like I’m showing off now by saying all the things that I did, but I mean, we’re doing that.
“I did so much, you don’t even understand how much I did, so us lake people, let’s just say we went into the lake, I’ve dipped my toes into every little single thing, I tried labelling, so I felt like everything was on me.”
After the speech, fellow contestant Tia told her: “When somebody is chatting out of their arse, I have to stop them.”
Zara then accused Tia of “just standing there looking at me the whole time”, before she replied: “You don’t need to get so defensive at me.”
The pair then broke into an argument over the task, with Zara asking her if she had “supersonic eyesight” to which Tia replied that she had “20/20 vision”.
Zara said: “I’m a simpleton, I’m just going to say it, so I can take orders easily, but you have to kind of make it connect the dots for me.”
The argument continued until Tia said: “You said you’re a simpleton, so I’m making it clear for you.”
She accused Zara of being a “selfish player” at which she began to cry and exclaimed “can I not talk please”, which led to Rinder asking the players for “decorum please”.
The players eventually voted for Jesse to receive the money, after he had run back to collect a bottle of wine when players discovered they were one short of a batch of 12 with just minutes left on the clock.
The 19-year-old was then taken to the strong room, where he was able to decide to either keep the money for himself or share some of it among his fellow contestants
In a twist, it was revealed he did not have to tell the rest of the team what his decision was, and his decision was also not revealed to viewers in the episode.
The Inheritance will return to Channel 4 on Monday at 9pm.
