A former contestant on ITV's The Neighbourhood has revealed the tough reality behind the cameras, which was far more gruelling than viewers ever saw on screen.
Challenges took hours to film
Alicia Bradon, 28, was one of six households on the Graham Norton-hosted series, where families moved into a village and competed in a high-stakes popularity contest. She appeared with her mum Faye-Marie, brothers Lucas and Nathan, and Nathan's teenage son Zach.
Speaking on TikTok, Alicia explained that one of the biggest surprises was how long each challenge took to film. While audiences saw only a few minutes of action, contestants often spent hours completing a single task.
Freezing conditions and numb bums
Recalling one of the opening challenges, she said: "The first challenge we did on the first day we got there - I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we were up on that washing line for about four hours."
The conditions were particularly difficult, with typical British weather making it worse. She added: "It was freezing. We had to have hand warmers when coming down, obviously we were getting electrocuted, the weather was typical English weather so it was not warm whatsoever and we were on little wooden things so your bum had gone numb."
Viewers saw only three minutes
Despite the gruelling experience, viewers saw only a fraction of what contestants endured. Alicia said: "You were up there for hours but you see like three minutes of it when you're watching it on TV. That is one thing for sure you don't realise - how long the challenges are. Sometimes we were out there for hours."
Show axed after poor ratings
The reality show reportedly has been cancelled after one series following poor ratings. It started decently when it aired on April 24 during I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, but ratings soon fell to just 500,000 by the third episode, which was not enough to keep its 9pm primetime slot.
A source told the Mirror: "It's a real shame because we loved the concept and Graham as the host. But sadly the viewers didn't feel the same way and the ratings have been disappointing. We won't be making another series."
Series one of The Neighbourhood is available to stream on ITVX.
