Season 01

[SVNBob]

14 hours ago, Notabug said:

But even that is disingenuous when TPTB know darned well that they can control how many contestants can be removed from the game and their money forfeited.  It was never a contest for $1M, not as long as they were subjected to the stupid mountainkeeper ordering them to abandon people along the way.  They knew from the start how much the final prize was going to be and it was never $1 mil.

I've been thinking about this... well, tangentially... and I'm not so sure.  I think it is possible on paper for there to be an actual $1 mil prize.

There's only been 3 instances of there being eliminations not at a checkpoint camp (which removes money): Tony's medevac, Bo getting literally cut by Geoff, and the most recent Dusty-off. 

The medevac was a fluke event.  Not unanticipated by TPTB, since they were prepared for it.  But it wasn't guaranteed  to happen.  So we can ignore Tony (for this argument).  That leaves Bo and Dusty.

Bo's cut was implied to be because of the delay in getting to the first checkpoint and the climbers having to make a bivvy camp Night 1.  Then they lost another day when they stayed at one checkpoint for 24 hours due to the weather.

Two days behind schedule... two eliminations off-schedule. 

It seems possible that had there been no delays and no medevacs, there would not have been any extra cuts and the full $1 million would be in play.  They might be a little farther up, but the numbers would be around the same.

[seacliffsal]

3 hours ago, SVNBob said:

I've been thinking about this... well, tangentially... and I'm not so sure.  I think it is possible on paper for there to be an actual $1 mil prize.

There's only been 3 instances of there being eliminations not at a checkpoint camp (which removes money): Tony's medevac, Bo getting literally cut by Geoff, and the most recent Dusty-off. 

The medevac was a fluke event.  Not unanticipated by TPTB, since they were prepared for it.  But it wasn't guaranteed  to happen.  So we can ignore Tony (for this argument).  That leaves Bo and Dusty.

Bo's cut was implied to be because of the delay in getting to the first checkpoint and the climbers having to make a bivvy camp Night 1.  Then they lost another day when they stayed at one checkpoint for 24 hours due to the weather.

Two days behind schedule... two eliminations off-schedule. 

It seems possible that had there been no delays and no medevacs, there would not have been any extra cuts and the full $1 million would be in play.  They might be a little farther up, but the numbers would be around the same.

Overall, I agree with you.  But, they also cast the contestants and I think they may have cast some of them in anticipation of people dropping out/quitting.  I truly do wonder if they thought more of the cast would have quit if some of the stronger climbers did not help them as much as they did.