The Summit; MasterChef: The Professionals

“Another week, another diabolically devious reality game designed to reduce grown adults to puddles of paranoia for our viewing pleasure. What larks. The Summit (ITV1) initially looked to be a giant version of the boring team challenge bit of The Traitors but then turned out to be like a Big Brother version of BBC2’s Pilgrimage, featuring lashings of resentment instead of quiet reflections on faith. You can’t fault its ambitions when it comes to turning the screw on its participants. Watching 14 people of varying ages and physical abilities slog their way up a mountain for financial reward is, it seems, not enough for this show — they must instead be pitted against each other. So while that nice Ben Shephard may pop up as a kind-faced host on the mountainside, this frequently feels like one of the most gleefully black-hearted reality shows yet.”
James Jackson, The Times

“A party of immature strangers is stranded in the wilderness, somewhere on the far side of the world. Their only hope lies in co-operation… but instead, they succumb to savagery. No, it’s not Lord Of The Flies, but Ben Shephard’s mountaineering reality show, The Summit - ITV’s take on The Traitors, with 14 contestants in cagoules instead of cloaks, using pickaxes to stab each other in the back. It must have seemed a good wheeze on paper. But, set in the wide open spaces of New Zealand instead of the confines of a castle, the format is overwhelmed by logistical problems. The result is stilted, staged, blatantly fake and frequently nonsensical. The scenery’s nice, though.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“MasterChef: The Professionals (BBC1) is back with a new judge. Saturday Kitchen’s affable Matt Tebbutt has been brought in to replace Gregg Wallace. “What sort of judge do you think you’re going to be?” asks chef Monica Galetti brightly. Matt, don’t overthink it. All you need to be is a judge who wears underpants to work. It’s a low bar, but somehow your predecessor failed to clear it. This change of personnel has little effect on the show, unlike the wholesale clear-out on the main MasterChef series – Grace Dent and Anna Haugh are the new presenters of that, in place of the sacked Wallace and John Torode, and will make their co-presenting debut later this year. The professional version is the domain of Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti, and Wallace was always a bit of a third wheel. While Torode is a loss to the franchise, Wallace really isn’t, and the Professionals is better without him. We can concentrate on the task at hand – watching people cook – without his leery contributions.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph