The Summit Host Manu Bennett Breaks Down Behind-the-Scenes Secrets

The Summit on CBS is a daring — and dangerous — new competition series.

The show centers on a group of contestants in the Southern Alps of New Zealand who are trying to reach the top of a mountain while undertaking various tasks along the way. Each contestant has a backpack with a portion of the grand prize, which adds up to one million dollars.

During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, host Manu Bennett opened up about the care that went into bringing the show to life while keeping the contestants safe.

“All of us were doing this for the first time. Everybody from the producers, the director, me, the contestants,” he explained. “So there were moments of just like, ‘How do we do this?’ I remember the first day standing and getting ready to deliver my lines to the contestants. I was paralyzed.”

It took time for The Summit to find its footing.

“There’s all these things that go on. So gradually as we ascended the mountain, not only were contestants evolving in their competition but we were evolving as a production,” Bennett, 54, noted to Us. “And that was very interesting as an artist [or] as somebody involved in the industry to go through that process of a brand new series like this. I really enjoyed it.”

Some of the challenges along the way involve several checkpoint camps, where the contestants vote someone out each night. There are also obstacles presented to them by the mysterious Mountain Keeper. If the group fails to reach the summit in 14 days then they all go home without the prize money.

A sneak peek of The Summit premiere airs on CBS Sunday, September 29 at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes of The Summit will then move to Wednesday starting October 9 at 9:30 p.m. ET. Keep scrolling for exclusive details from Bennett about behind-the-scenes details:

What Protections Were Put in Place?

The Summit marks Bennett’s return to hosting after his debut on a show called Going Straight in 2003.

“I did that show called Going Straight. It was an interesting step into that kind of world back then. There was an accident that took place in that particular filming of that series that was quite serious,” he recalled to Us. “So one of my major concerns when I stepped up to do The Summit was just safety.”

In 2004, an investigation was launched after a contestant on Going Straight suffered severe burns following a retake of a stunt.The production company was fined $65,000 in district court for the incident.

Bennett didn’t have any concerns while working on The Summit, joking, “Inherently the American productions have much more safety and much more in place than what we do in little old New Zealand where if you fall, you just hope you land on a sheep.”

The actor felt “really, really good” about how the safety of the contestants was prioritized, adding, “I — at all times — felt that the network had those bases covered, which I thought was paramount to making sure we were shooting a show that was going to guard these 16 non-experienced people of a very complex mountain system.”

What Did the Contestants Know About What Show They Were On?

“They waltzed into that valley in the middle of this incredible terrain in New Zealand. I don’t believe that they knew as far as I was told. I was under the impression that they arrived without knowledge of being on a show called The Summit,” he revealed. “So they didn’t know that they were going to be scaling a mountain — that was going to be their surprise. And they didn’t know there was a million dollars involved.”

Bennett pointed out that the contestants “are not athletes,” adding, “These are just ordinary people. Like, one guy works at Trader Joe’s and nobody is a mountaineer. When you look at something like that, you try to figure out how is it possible? [The prize money] is a dream aspect for most people’s lives. That’s the big game changer. Suddenly you see the motivation.”

What Obstacles Might the Audience Not See?

“[There were] a few mountain guides. There’s some locals that know the area like the back of their hand that have ascended those mountains and know them very well. They know exactly where there’s going to be avalanches. We could hear them going off all the time,” Bennett recalled. “It was sort of late in the season so you had melting snow and there were slips and things going on all the time. But they know and they know how to navigate the right route.”

There were several issues that The Summit couldn’t prepare for ahead of time.

“On any of these mountains, you take a wrong turn and you go up the wrong side and either somebody’s going to fall or something’s going to fall on you. Gravity is probably one of the main determinants of our show — and people fall each season figuratively and literally,” he teased. “As far as safety is concerned, there was an international group of well-versed mountaineers involved in our show. We had one of the best coordinators of obstacle courses. … We had some pretty admirable mountaineers that were making sure that nobody stepped too far off track.”