ITV Commissions Prize Island

LONDON: Initial, an Endemol company, is producing a new action-oriented game show for ITV, Prize Island, which will feature pairs of contestants scouring a desert island for prizes.

Alexander Armstrong and Emma Willis will host. Each episode will start with four couples arriving on the sandy beach of an island paradise. The pairs will compete in a series of challenges, vying for prizes which are scattered through the sand dunes, palm trees and grasslands of the island. After each round, one pair is eliminated. The show will air on ITV1 in 2013.

Armstrong said, “Prize Island is the kind of show every presenter dreams of—inventive, clever, funny, absolutely compelling… oh and set on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean. With prizes! I am so excited about this!”

Willis added, “I am beyond excited to be one of the presenters of Prize Island. It promises to be a show like no other where contestants win unbelievable prizes, and get to visit one of the most exotic and beautiful locations on the planet. It’s going to be a show that will transport the viewer to the other side of the world every weekend and I can’t wait to be a part of such an ambitious and unique project for ITV1.”

Elaine Bedell, ITV‘s director of entertainment and comedy, commented, “Prize Island will be fantastic family fun in a stunning, paradise island setting, and promises a lot of laughs and thrills for our viewers, both from the games themselves, and the wittiness of our brilliant hosts Alexander and Emma, who we’re really pleased to have on board.”

Nick Samwell-Smith, the creative director at Initial, remarked, "Prize Island is fabulous and ambitious and we are thrilled to be making it for ITV. The contestants are set for the journey of a lifetime to a tropical paradise that promises spectacular and ingenious games, surprises round every corner and prizes ripe for the picking absolutely everywhere. The entire desert island is our set, from the warm waters of the golden beaches to the towering sand dunes and the mysterious interior and you can win more awesome stuff than you can shake a coconut at."