Front Burner - Split Screen: Thrill Seekers | It was a multi-million dollar media experiment. Would you fall for it?

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

A TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there’s a catch. The audience knows everything but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Split Screen: Thrill Seekers is a new 6 part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what’s actually real.Host Nick van der Kolk (Love + Radio) asks: does reality TV only succeed when it exploits those involved? He talks to the set designers, crew, and the contestants themselves to learn what it took to permanently distort their sense of reality.Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted.More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/ztducTr-

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, everybody. Jamie here. We have another special episode for you today. It's from the new season of Split Screen Thrill Seekers. Split Screen is an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling, world of entertainment and pop culture. Imagine this, a TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime.

12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there is a catch. The audience knows everything, but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Hosted by Nick Vandercolk of Love & Radio, Thrill Seekers is a new six-part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what's actually real. We have the first episode for you now. Have a listen. From Love and Radio Vespucci and CBC, this is Split Screen Thrill Seekers. I'm Nick Vandercolk. Chapter One.

Are you a thrill seeker? Hello and welcome. Welcome to... How do you do it? First you place a pretty great ad in the press. So, Louise, just to start things off, can you introduce yourself for me and tell me about when you first saw the ad for the TV show? I'm Louise Decker and I'm from Kent in the southeast of England. off. Can you introduce yourself for me and tell me about when you first saw the ad for the TV show? I'm Louise Decker and I'm from Kent in the southeast of England. So I think I must have been living back at home after university. I definitely remember being at the computer

in my mum and dad's house and... Thrill seekers wanted. Are you missing out on life's great experiences? Is the British public missing out on you? I think it was an email or maybe a star now type thing. It said, do you want to go on an adventure and do something that's really exciting that hasn't been done before we're launching a new tv show and we're looking for contestants to go on the adventure of a lifetime yeah it was absolutely super duper vague it's time to stand out from the crowd my brain went off to doing some sort of exploration canoeing up the nile or climbing Mount Everest. If you're up for a challenge then get in touch.

I was a PE teacher at the time. I never wanted to be a PE teacher so I kind of fell into the PE teacher role which is something my dad did so I think I was still looking for outlets of other things to try and do at the time. That seemed quite appealing. And I clearly recall sitting there and looking at that email and thinking, I'd like to do that. I mean, I've never been to Kent, but it sounds like whatever this ad is promising is going to be pretty different from your life there. Is that right? Yes, 100%. So the concept was, are you a thrill seeker? And what will you do in pursuit of the thrill and we were asking so what is the thrill can you can you give us more detail and they said no that's that's it so if

you want to be on the show stop asking that question and get on with the auditions and ryan remind me this is this is like the mid 2000s were, I think, around 28 at the time, still working on the railways. Yeah. Did you get an email just like Luis did? I was lucky. It was just fortune. I did a few TV ads, done one for Burger King. I've done a few other ones.

And then the Channel 4 end them all contacted me and said, do you want to go on this game show? And yeah, I was like, yes, yes, let's do it. What do I need to do? I just remember being called to an audition in the centre of London by a really famous tall statue, a really tall skinny one, like Nelson's Column, perhaps. I can't remember what the statue was, but I loved it. I've always been super, super competitive,

competitive in everything and anything I do, which is very annoying. And it's such a bad character flaw that I have. And it was at that point I started to wonder how some people had got that far. Because Steve, for example, I didn't understand why they would pick someone like Steve to go on an adventure. Yeah. Oh, it's horrible. I'm going to sound such a horrible person. I am Steve Hester. I have no artistic integrity whatsoever and will do anything for money.

He couldn't cope with anything. He moaned about everything. I was about 25 when I got that first call. And I was very immature for being in my mid-twenties. So did you have any special tricks up your sleeve to stand out? twenties. So did you have any like special tricks up your sleeve to stand out? Um, they said they wanted to see some kind of improvisational thing. So I go down there and I had my guitar and then sat in the waiting room and no idea what was going on in the auditorium. And then they made me go through the usual rigmarole that you do at an audition. Oh, tell us who you are, where you're from.

Okay, you've got a guitar. What have you got a guitar for? One, two, one, two, three, four. And I'd come up with this stupid song about a lemming. I'm a lemming on the seizure of life. that was pretending to be gay in order to get out of paying child support for his billions of lemming children. And so I played that for them. It was a terrible song. It was absolutely awful.

It was a terrible song. It was absolutely awful. And then they said, okay, that's brilliant. Fantastic. Okay, so what I want you to do is pick a card off this board. It's a big notice board. And I picked one off and it was the first landing on Mars. So I then did this whole improvisational routine about landing on the surface.

I'd do this kind of like noise of a ship landing, which is like... And then they say, okay, yeah, thank you my name is charlie skelton i'm a comedy writer and occasional journalist it's a strange time for tv i think because it we just missed all of the drugs the massive coke explosion in British TV had just finished. I don't think I ever saw a single line of cocaine in my time in British TV, which dates it, I think, interestingly. I probably started on 8 Out Of 10 Cats as a writer, which is a Jimmy Carr panel show. Rob started brushing his teeth nine years ago,

and great news, he's nearly finished. Stuff like that. But, you know, I was good friends with these people, so they called me into some cryptic meeting at one point. A very peculiar meeting. For a start, I didn't really have meetings with these people. I would go out for a drink with them, so it was slightly weirdly formal. And they were really shifty.

They'd occasionally sort of disappear to the back of the room and have a whispered conversation. What is going on? And they wouldn't tell me anything about what the thing was. So they actually said to me, it was the most bizarre situation. They said, we want you to sign up to this thing, but we can't tell you what it is. And I said, well, obviously I can't do that. I might be, I don't know, selling you my kidney. I don't know what it is. So they headed off to the back of the room again for another huddle and muttered a few things. And they said, OK, we can tell you some things about it. When did you first meet the other contestants?

What was that like? I suppose I met some of them during the initial psychological, sort of psychometric shakedown thing. From the 100 interviewed, we invited 50 for a day of psychological tests. The most advanced psychological tests and empirical scientific profiling techniques were used to weed out the wrong stuff from the right stuff.

The first series of tests were a monument. I remember the building being a white framed, window framed office block. The floor that we were on, I think it must have been like the third floor or something. So they crammed us all in the lift. And I think it was before we'd even signed in. And there's three or four of us in there.

Not exactly cramped, but it was fairly full. And then just dropped us down a few floors and then... Everything just stopped. In those kind of situations, when anyone or someone's panicking, I kind of do the opposite. So if everyone had been calm, I might have been a bit more like,

oh, gosh, are we going to be OK? I just remember saying, you should all bend your legs so that if the lift does suddenly hurtle to the ground, your legs don't shoot up through your torso and kill you. It's fine, they'll come and get us. They'll come and get us. I remember thinking it was quite funny. I said, it'll be fine. There's nothing that's going to happen to us for goodness sake. You know, there's a number down there. There's a bell. Let's ring that. Because I think, well, I used to think I was quite clever

and knew everything, which, of course, I didn't. So... Ah, it's really hot. I'm just going to press it. So after they rescue you from the elevator, I think they took you to another abandoned floor with all these empty conference rooms yeah along with the other contestants so what happened after that so there

were two tests that they took us on individually first they held up these cards and on these cards they had these random patterns and swirls they showed me a picture of nothing i think it was paint or like a messy paint picture like what do you see and i was thinking to myself i don't see anything but i need to say something i just made up some nonsense about i said oh it reminds me of a photo that my mum keeps of her dad on the mantelpiece and they're like yeah yeah and it was just complete nonsense and that was very similar with the other test, which was a jar full of these balls, eyeballs, all of different sizes. So you had big ones that were the size of a tennis ball. And there were other ones that were about the size of a ping pong ball. And they're all mixed in this jar together. We had to say how many balls are in

there. And again, they were questioning us. Do you really think it's that many? Or so-and-so said this. What do you think? Do you remember the producers asking you to do any other weird tests just dance around with headphones on noise cancelling headphones and uh like a set of blacked out goggles so you couldn't see you couldn hear, and we just got told, dance. Just think of some music in your head and then just dance to it. No, no music at all? Yes. How did you find that? At that point, really wildly outside my comfort zone.

I just crushed all of my normal feelings down into a deep corner and got on with it. What was the purpose of these tests? Did they tell you anything? I didn't know what the tests were for. I had no idea what the show was at this point. I had no idea about anything. So we knew it was for a TV show, that we'd be taking on an adventure and that I would need a certain amount of time off work.

I can't even remember if they told us how much time we would need off work. I know they said that it would be paid, like if we were on jury service. My headteacher was like, she thought it would be brilliant. And I think she thought she could use me as a means to advertise the school for something positive I was doing. Because if you'd had a teacher climb up Mount Everest, that would be quite cool, wouldn't it? But yeah, I still didn't know what we were doing if you don't know anything how do you know what kind of person they want for the show

like what's what's going through your head so I noticed a few people at the auditions running around like look at how crazy I am and doing like really crazy stuff I sort of picked up on the vibe that they weren't really looking for that. They were just looking for normal people. I just decided to be myself and not splash around like a TV addicted lunatic. I met a guy at the auditions.

I was looking over him and I'm like, he stinks of booze. He's sitting there, he's got his hands in his head and he was a mess. And I'm like, what are you doing here? And he's like there he's got his hands in his head and he was a mess and I'm like what are you doing here and he's like oh I got an offer to come and do this show I'm like have you heard anything about it what is it he's like I don't know anything about it

he's like I'm really tired I was out last night and I'm like oh that's interesting it's like Wednesday and he's like I've not been to bed I thought oh that's interesting I quite like the sound of that guy it turns out he's like royalty. He's related to the Queen. He's a very wealthy individual.

His family are beyond wealthy. He was like a party boy. He's like a socialite. That's when I sort of realised all these people have got successful lives. They want more. And I found that fascinating. And then after that, they said they said okay thank you very much i wasn't expecting then to get another call i remember i was standing in

stockport town centre and there's this big glass shopping centre in stockport and then there's a little plazary bit in front of one of the doors with a road going through where the buses go through to the station. And I was just walking out of there and I got the phone call. And my agent says, are you free to talk? Yeah, I'm free. OK, right, right, right. Because I've got some really big news for you. People from Channel 4 want to book you for this show.

But there is this whole veil of secrecy across it. I'm going to be sending you over a non-disclosure agreement. You need to be signing this non-disclosure agreement. You cannot do this without saying that you are not going to tell a single living soul about what is going to go on. Not even your parents, not even your girlfriend. You can't tell anybody. going to go on not even your parents not even your girlfriend you can't tell anybody and i thought what the hell am i getting myself into here you In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection.

Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people, and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income?

That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Okay, so you've done these auditions at Monument in London and you get a call back. Tell me about the next set of auditions.

monument in London and you get a call back. Tell me about the next set of auditions. We did like lots of outdoor ed kind of adventurous stuff. Survivor or something like that was on the television at the time where they had to exist on the island. So this is what I'm thinking we're going to be doing. And at this point, my heart sank. I'm not an outdoorsy person. I'm what we would describe as a rotund gentleman. The only thing which gets any kind of work out is my thumbs and my mouth. But I was there thinking, oh my god, this could be the kickstart of my career. This was going to be kind of Big Brother level production in my head. I can't say no to this.

All these thoughts were going through my head a million miles an hour. Did anyone stand out to you at the auditions other than Steve? I think I remember seeing Ryan because you can't really miss him with all his hair. We went to the Lake District, which is about 400 miles north of London. Countryside, basically, with lakes. It's a really beautiful place that time forgot. The audition was big at that stage. There was maybe 50-odd people, all the media staff, cameramen.

It was huge. We took over this big hotel, big, giant, beautiful hotel, like a castle, I suppose, beautiful place. And we camped out, we went on walks. They made us do activities. We did, like, team bonding. There was abseiling. Abseiling down a 90-foot sheer rock face.

Which terrified the living stuff out of me. I don't think I've been scared in a very, very long time. The rope was slippy, I couldn't get a grip on the wall, so that was, like, about, I don't know, maybe 20 seconds of sheer terror. Keep up! Keep up! Keep up! I couldn't get a grip on the wall, so that was like about, I don't know, maybe 20 seconds of sheer terror. Ryan's off. I was terrified up top, and then once I got going it was really thrilling. And then I got a bit bold towards the end. Nice moves, Ryan, but Louise impressed the instructors more.

Great, well done, well done. Well done. She said she'd never done that before, but I'm not quite sure. Well done, Lou. That's well done. That's the best so far. I'm actually really scared of heights.

I hadn't told them I was scared of heights, but I did it anyway. And I said something really silly when I got down there. I'm not going to repeat because I'm very embarrassed of it. Peezy pee. Really easy peasy. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had an even greater test of their fear then some daredevil stuff a 30 foot bridge jump we came to a bridge and they stopped us all at the bridge and we were waiting like to cross the road like children and they're like we're not crossing the road everyone

jump in the river right now many people would quite happily do that during the height of summer. This was not the height of summer. This was the middle of winter in Cumbria. And we're like, whoa. So we're queuing up to jump in the river and everyone's doing it. Some people are more enthusiastic than others. I remember running up this jetty thinking, what the fuck am I doing? This is absurd.

It was like just being hit, punched as hard as you can imagine in the chest. It was absolutely terrifying. That water was icy cold to the point that I honestly felt like I needed to get hold of a spoon to get my testicles out. And I remember coming up and going, well, that's it. I can't. I'm going to die. I can't get back to the shore. There's simply no way I can swim back to the shore.

The moment that your head came up out of the water, you're immediately gasping for breath. Not because you needed to actually breathe, but because it had just knocked all the air out of you. I've killed myself for these fucking fuckers who aren't paying me enough for this shit. That was a real show of character as well. I think that was where they started to cross people off. Come on, Steve-O! Basically, they've all rushed up to the top,

but I'm just absolutely shagged out. I'm just not used to this type of exercise at all. It's a bloody big mountain! So I'm just going to wait here. I wasn't taking part in some of the activities. Like the kayaking, I was feeling so cold and so damp and withdrawn. I was hating every single moment of it. Steve struggles manfully on.

Remember me for the bafflers. He moaned about everything. He whinged about everything. We walked for five minutes, he'd be tired and his legs would hurt. He felt ill all the time. He was hot and sweaty, he couldn't breathe. Just everything he could think of. I didn't know how he could manage to live, let alone do anything physical. What did you hate the most? They blindfolded each of us in this wood and we had to hold onto the hand of the person in front

and we had no idea where we were going. And we got to a tunnel and i was aware of the tunnel at first because i could hear people getting down and scrabbling on their knees and someone that was nearby going okay you need to lie down here and move yourself forward and i was i'm still i still am fairly big chap but i was big back then i was i was terrified that I was going to get stuck. Being trapped in a really, really tight, enclosed, concrete tunnel where you can feel everything squishing your shoulders in with no actual way out of it.

By the time I came out, I think I was having another one of those adrenaline hits and it really wasn't pleasant. I'm not an adrenaline junkie. I don't like those kind of things I wouldn't say it was enjoyable it was just like oh my god it's really raining heavy I'm happy for this audition to end and like we didn't know what was ahead of us but we all wanted to be there I mean if they said to me there's seven auditions instead of three I would have done all seven just to be there. I mean, if they said to me, there's seven auditions instead of three, I would have done all seven just to be around the atmosphere.

After that second round auditions where we'd went away for the outdoor ed thing, I got an email to say I was going to get picked up by a car at something like four o'clock in the morning. I remember it was a really cold, foggy, misty morning. My mum was horrified that she had to put me in this car with somebody that we didn't know who it was and I didn't know where I was going. I had to have my passport, I'd have two suitcases, a hot suitcase and a cold suitcase. This car was going to pick me up with a chauffeur and take us to the airport and I was going to meet somebody up with a chauffeur and take us to the airport and I was going to meet somebody at the airport and I remember getting to the airport and I met one of

the runners and she told me the flight number and let me look on the board. She said we're going to the Maldives. I went oh she's not excited I don't know where the Maldives are and then she explained. And then she explained. They flew each person with a chaperone all around the world. Some people in Texas, some people in Rio, some people in Thailand, India. So still at this point, I didn't know if we were in the TV show yet, but I knew I was going to the Maldives. And she took my phone, my watch and everything off me from that moment. we spent a lovely five days I think in the

Maldives it was amazing one minute we're in Heathrow and I thought is this is this the show has the show begun and they're like no it's not this is the final audition get on that plane don't ask any questions so I did we did me and my chaperone he was really frank with me he's like just don't ask me those questions. And I'm like, all right, cool. I won't ask you them. Let's just go on with it. What do we do? He's like, we've got unlimited money.

I was in Mauritius. We're going to have a good time. And we stayed in a five-star resort. And I'm like, wow, this is crazy. It was like being Rod Stewart for the day. We just had five-star treatment everywhere. It was amazing. And that Stewart for the day. We just had five-star treatment everywhere. It was amazing. And that was before the show. So it really sparked our curiosity, you know,

and our imagination, like, what can this show be? And then on our return, I remember seeing some other people on the plane on our return, not on our way out, and hearing bits and pieces of conversations and realising there was other people from the show there. So I thought maybe I was in at this point, but then I could hear lots of other people and I wasn't sure.

And then... We all met up in Charles de Gaulle Airport, I think, in Paris. We all flew in from wherever we were. And everyone's like, where have you been? He's like, Texas. I've been to Mumbai. And everyone had the same experience. They're all chatting about how amazing it was. So...

Oh, I can't remember. We ended up going to some hotel, being locked in some hotel for two days straight as well. And we still didn't have a phone. We still didn't have a watch or anything. Two days of absolute tedium and boredom pacing around just this hotel room. And then eventually we get a call. We got called down just this hotel room. And then eventually, we get a call.

We got called down to this big room. So I'm thinking, oh, I'm probably in a good place here. I've been away for a whole week and they must be wanting to keep me on. And when we went down to this big room, I remember seeing loads of people and thinking, oh God, my heart sank. I mustn't be in. There's so many people here including Steve then from that big room we then got taken on a coach with all the curtains closed no one had slept for over a day

maybe two days some people so we were all like really exhausted and running on adrenaline and then they took us to Biggins Hill airport They lined us up in two groups and they said 12 of you will go through that door and 12 of you will go through that other door. One is the bus home and the other one is the beginning of the show and that means you're chosen. There were such big

characters in the other half and they were talking about how they'd been on the trials for Big Brother and things so I thought oh my gosh you know I'm just plain old Louise. They're not going to pick me. And again, I was stuck in a room with Steve. So I thought I mustn't be in this group. I can't be.

If he's in this, there's no way I'm in because there's no way they would pick him. Ryan, what were you thinking at this point? We were all like, all going a bit crazy at that point. Most of the beautiful girls, they were in the opposite team as well. And I was like, I thought they would choose beautiful girls, but they're all on a different team from me.

I thought, oh, maybe I'm not going to get on. But another real handsome guy, I call him, he looks like Superman, Billy, Billy Jackson. He was in my team. I thought he's definitely getting on. Young, handsome, charismatic TV guy, right? And then they just came in with a clipboard and everything and went, OK, I want the following people to go with us.

Ryan, Billy, Kerry, Astrid, Steve, Charlie. And then they took us out one by one onto the tarmac. And the cameras were rolling, we were like, wow, it's really happening. And it was at that point, standing right next to a private plane, ramp came down, Johnny Vaughan appeared at the top. All right, gang.

That was a real gotcha moment because we still didn't know what was going on. And then when you see the cameras, and you see the microphones, and they're like, we're live, it's like, whoa, it's really happening. It just all comes in. Back in June, you know you all applied for a show called Thrill Seekers. Throughout the last five months,

you've had no idea what that show was, correct? Absolutely no idea whatsoever. Okay. Now, you were promised a challenge and the ultimate thrill that's what you were promised yeah you're trying to compute it all yeah it's like what is it got what's he on about and uh listen very carefully i'm now going to give you the big picture i remember telling everyone to be quiet because i couldn't hear what you're saying i'm so bossy you know be quiet be quiet, be quiet, I need to hear what he's saying.

You are about to become... And I don't think I quite processed what he was saying. The very first televised British space tour. It's like two things going on at the one time. So it was quite hard to put it all into perspective. We were really happy. Oh, we're on the show. What is the show? You go into space, it's like, oh, that's too much.

So it was just, it was extreme excitement and everyone was high as a kite. Everyone else was jumping around being silly and hugging and I look bewildered almost. I don't think I quite understand what's going on. God knows what I did in those few moments. But, yeah, I was in my happy place at that point as I tried to go whoop and click my heels and punch the air and high-five everyone and hug and all of that.

This plane here, it will take you to Russia. Once there, you'll undergo three weeks of intensive astronaut training with STAR, the Space Tourism Agency of Russia. You may have seen when billionaires go up into space, they're the boys they use. At the end of your training, a lucky few of you, a lucky few, the best of the best, will be sent into orbit. But you don't have to. I'm going to give you one

minute now. Really think very carefully about this. I'm not really sure I actually want to go to space. I don't love space. They just had that horrible thing happen to one of the space missions not that long before then, I'm pretty sure. My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. Communications with Columbia were lost at about 8 a.m. Central Time. We did not copy your last...

Roger... A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. ...the big huge sonic boom, and it shook our whole windows of our doors... In 42 years of human spaceflight, NASA has never lost a space crew during a landing or a ride back into orbit. As you remember, of course, in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. I remember watching live the Challenger exploding in the sky. We have main engine start. 4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff. Liftoff of the 25th Space Shuttle mission, and it has cleared the tower. I think it was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon or something like that. It's a beautiful day, we're watching this amazing event.

And live on TV, you know, just like an explosion. The whole thing was like shock and awe, you know, just like an explosion. Obviously a major malfunction. The whole thing was like shock and awe, you know, it was like a close, the camera panned right in on it and just went boom. The rocket speeding the shuttle at 2,000 miles an hour exploded. The seven crew members, five men and two women were all killed. They included the first ordinary citizen to go into space, a teacher called Krista McAuliffe. It was just a tragedy, you know, like, look at the heroes going up to the space station,

the poor teacher, she's the first civilian. That's one of my first memories. I remember that being in the back of my head and being terrified of something like that as well. So I think I was a little less excited than everybody else. Also, I'm not a huggy, clappy person like that anyway. And I had done my research before the show. I knew the company name. I knew it was Endemol and Zepetron was the smaller company.

So I had researched and Googled as much as I could about Zepetron and I knew they were a comedy company. So I was then really thinking, well, why is this comedy? I don't understand. Maybe they're going a different route or something. So I remember questioning things a bit more, probably because I was terrified about the whole space thing. What scared you about it? I didn't want something horrible to happen to me. I didn't want to die. That's basically what I was thinking. I didn't want to die.

So why'd you go ahead with it then? Because I'm stupidly competitive. It's so annoying. The competition, wanting to do well and want to please other people. That's the reason why I went ahead with it. Okay, you may now board your plane and off your prop. And then he kind of stepped to one side and invited us all to board the plane. And I was actually the first one to go up the stairs because I was the one closest to the aircraft. I just remember standing at the top of the stairs, turning around and kind of just shouting with my hands in the air. We're going to space, baby!

Oh God, I look like such an idiot. that's it for this episode of thrill seekers it featured the voices of louise decker i've always been super super competitive in everything and anything i do which is very annoying ryan mcbride it was like being rod stewart for the day we just had five-star treatment everywhere. Steve Hester. The only thing which gets any kind of work out is my thumbs and my mouth. And Charlie Skelton. I've killed myself for these fucking fuckers who aren't paying me enough for this shit.

Split Screen Thrill Seekers is a co-production of Love and Radio and Vespucci for CBC. The series producer is Meera Kumar. The story editors are Thomas Curry and Stephen Jackson. Thomas Curry is the managing producer. Audio mix and sound design by Stephen Jackson. We featured music from the catalog of Revenge, the finest independent record label on this or any other planet.

The staff of CBC Podcasts are Senior Producer Kate Evans, Coordinating Producer Anna Ashtey, Senior Manager Tanya Springer, and Director Arif Noorani. The executive producers are Chris Oak and Cecil Fernandez from the CBC, Matt Willis, Daniel Turkin, and Johnny Galvin from Vespucci,

and from Love and Radio, myself. I'm Nick Vandercolk. Thanks for listening. That was the first episode of Split Screen Thrill Seekers. Episode two is waiting for you right now. You can find the show wherever you get your podcasts. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.