The intriguing new reality show starts tonight.
It’s the series ready to take the world of reality TV by storm and Josh Must Win lands on our screens tonight (Monday 25th March), ready to have us all at home rooting for underdog Josh – and RadioTimes.com has your exclusive first look at the show.
The series gives four celebrities their toughest job yet as a sprawling cast think they’re taking part in a new show, The Favourite hosted by Nick Grimshaw. Actually, the group of celebs next door are behind a secret strategy game of their own and must ensure that Josh wins.
Well, in the exclusive clip (above), all the contestants have been introduced to our panel of famous faces – Grimshaw, Amber Rose Gill, Vicky Pattison and Pete Wicks. That is until they finally get to meet Josh himself in the most adorable moment.
As he takes his seat in the confessional booth on the TV screen, the celebrities instantly look surprised and as if they’re fit to burst with emotion. Josh reveals that he’s 23 years old, currently lives at home with his parents and four chocolate labradors and loves to crack jokes.
“In my mind, popularity is someone that you think of and you instantly smile, a thousand good memories of being around them,” he continues.
As he talks through his spare time and hobbies, Josh then surprises the stars by revealing that as well as working as a bartender, he’s also a professional wrestler and has been doing it for the past six years.
“Because of my look and my size, everyone just looks at me as the underdog good guy. Every match that I have, everyone just towers over me but everyone loves to root for the guy who topples the giant,” he says.
When his clip is over, the shock on everyone’s faces is clear as the stars are left reeling from the introduction to Josh. Just as they’re left to deal with it all, a voice comes booming out of the TV telling them that all the housemates think they’re competing for £10,000. But it’s up to them to bring the prize pot up to a potential maximum of £100,000 – which will be shared by all the players if Josh wins.
While they debrief about the task at hand, Pete confesses that he does love Josh but also says: “All I’m saying is this is going to be f**king hard now.”
Nick then says: “He’s nice, but do nice guys win a competition called The Favourite?”
“Maybe we need to change their perception of what being popular actually is then,” Vicky explains, and says they’ve “got to amplify his good qualities”. It’s not long before his kindness and genuineness become main highlights that they want to draw out, but will they be able to?
According to the synopsis of the show: “Faced with their greatest challenge to date, they will do everything they can to influence the game – by setting tasks, introducing jaw-dropping format twists, mastering the art of manipulation and using all they’ve learnt about reality shows and popularity to ensure Josh’s triumph. But can Josh win without him or any of the players discovering the truth?
“What does it take to be popular today? Can this panel handle the pressure of controlling a show starring real people? This contemporary take on the reality show will make you laugh out loud, and change the rules of the game.”
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Speaking ahead of the release of the series, Grimshaw told RadioTimes.com and other press about the fresh format of the show and said: “Not knowing where it was going to go, we genuinely had a challenge that we did not know what was going to happen. We didn’t know who Josh was. We didn’t know who the other contestants were.
“You know, normally before a show you’re, like, well versed in what’s going to happen, what the script looks like, what each episode will be, but we had no idea, so going into it blind with everyone else also going into it brand new.
“It just felt really exciting to do something that felt genuinely new with this really great twist, which is a good positive twist as well. It’s not like a mean twist. You know what I mean? It was, like, a nice message to be putting out there I think within the world of reality.”
The Underdog: Just Must Win starts Monday 25th March at 9pm on E4. Stream on Channel 4.
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