Would you leave your husband if he had an affair? What if your pregnant girlfriend told you the baby wasn’t yours?
These are just some of the issues set to be addressed when Channel Nine’s latest reality show, The Last Resort, hits our screens soon.
The jaw-dropping new series, which already has everyone talking, follows five couples at breaking point embark on a mission to rekindle their love with help from psychologist Sandy Rae and relationship coach Michael Myerscough.
The couples get to know each other.
And just weeks out from its premiere, TV WEEK caught up with co-creator and executive producer Judy Smart to get all the goss and find out just what viewers can expect.
“We had a few thousand people apply for the show but we were looking for serious couples with serious issues,” Judy says of the selection criteria, adding cast and crew spent four weeks filming on the tropical island of Fiji.
“It’s is all about moving their relationship forward one way or another and you will see each couple as they undergo group counselling sessions, one-on-one therapy and relationship tasks.
“Each episode is really different and has a little bit of magic. We follow the couples from the moment they wake up in the morning to the moment they go to bed at night and at the end of their time on the island, we follow them back home to see if they’ve been able to use the tools from Sandy and Michael in their everyday lives to get back on track.”
Cocktail time!
From there comes the commitment ceremony.
“At the end of that week, it’s kind of that moment the whole series is pushing towards which is the ring ceremony and will they each decide to exchange rings with their partner in a sign of their commitment forever or will they break up?.”
Meanwhile, Head of Content, Production and Development at Nine Network Adrian Swift says the show will likely hit home to some viewers.
“You’ll recognise the people but you’ll really recognise the arguments,” Adrian says.
Clearly not everyone is thrilled to be there…
“This is a really positive show about relationships and what we have done is gone ‘can we take couples, who aren’t just vaguely dissatisfied or a little bit uncomfortable, but either separated or absolutely on the verge of separation, but who still want to keep the relationship going, can we take these people who under any normal circumstances would split and help fix it?’”
“These are people with houses and their people with kids so the consequences of those are really severe. Emotionally and financially, they are severe consequence.”
So how will The Last Resort differ to the likes of Married At First Sight or even Seven Year Switch?
“This is not reality contestants shouting at each other,” Adrian says.
“We don’t have the wit to make up what happens. This is not produced. This is real people, going through real relationships and what you’ll see over the episodes is fundamentally how their lives change.”
