They came up with plans to prevent suicide and tackle climate change. Then on Day 4 of the reality TV challenge came a final twist – there was no need for the contestants to leave their cars, the housemates were going to move them.
By Sunday afternoon, each of the contestants had decided to move their personal possessions onto a nearby mountain bike in a last minute rush.
The result – they were out of mobile signal, or worse, out of petrol.
The final day of the competition has got off to a flying start with the first round of questions having been answered on Day 1 by the contestants but, by Day 4, the question on which the show is based – why they chose to go on the challenge – had still not been answered.
All that’s left is for the contestants to leave their cars or the house.
But, as with last week’s dramatic moment when the housemates decided to fly their belongings out the window by climbing off a helicopter, there is another possible issue – the car with the best fuel economy might be left behind.
It is not all down to the fuel and the environment, though.
There is an important issue at stake. The challenge is based on the belief that, if it is possible to reduce the carbon footprint of living, that is the best way to show how we can tackle climate change – to leave behind a better planet than we were at the moment they signed up.
And that, it seems, is also why the contestants have been forced to leave their cars behind.
They have left the environment in chaos. The last question in the first round of the elimination challenge today asked: “Did not your personal car leave the competition?”
One of those left behind is American-Italian chef, Andrew Zimmern, who admitted he “didn’t quite know” what to do in the situation, saying he went back to his car, took a picture of it and “watched those cars go away.