Same breakfast every day, same job, the grind in the relationship. Does that still give you satisfaction or do you do it completely differently? Fourteen participants of the adventure reality show ‘The Unknown’ ask themselves that question. Just by saying ‘yes’ to the program, they embark on an uncertain adventure.
The candidates are attacked at work or on the terrace and have an hour to pack their things. Although they have registered in advance, it still turns out to be too much for some. Those who do get on the plane to Slovenia see their team for the first time when the blindfolds are allowed to be taken off.
Assignment seems simple
The participants are divided into Team Known (with celebrities) and Team Unknown (with unknown people), they have no idea what to expect and with whom they will compete. The assignment seems simple: who is the fastest and brings the suitcase with 25,000 euros to presenter Renze Klamer? But before that happens, a lot of hurdles have to be overcome with the question again and again: do you choose known or unknown?
Policy advisor Ruud, unknown to Team, is one of the candidates who takes a leap of faith: “I live on structure, I weigh choices carefully. I thought I had to step outside my comfort zone for once, but when I was blindfolded at work I regretted it.”
Lawyer Nikta (Team unknown) : „I lead a comfortable life with my work, family and safety net. I wonder what it’s like when you get pulled out of there. It is handing in the phone and no contact with the outside world.”
Olympic skater Ronald Mulder, known from Team: “You are blindfolded and placed somewhere, I was afraid that I would go into an abyss.”
Insecurity
Mischa Blok, known from Team, agrees with the uncertainty: “You don’t know what to look out for. If you on Who is the mole? then you know how the game goes. But here you don’t know at all how things are going and whether you are good at it. Yet it brought me a lot, for me it was an exercise in letting go and also a test to what extent you are willing to cross your limits. For example, I had to overcome my fear of heights. You get to know yourself better.”
Pia Douwes (Team known): „It was a way for me to challenge myself. Figuring out how I deal with things I don’t know.”
Magician
It was also one big challenge for IT manager Bart from Team Unknown. “There are a few things that always come back to me. Control, scenarios, direction and decisiveness. With that you immediately have the argument why this was interesting to me. If I have no certainty and the feeling that I can give direction is missing, then I get nervous. But in the end you always know how to find a way, even in the unknown.”
The program is a successor to The traitors and was also developed by the same makers. Magician Steven Kazàn in Team known participated in 2021 The traitors and can therefore make a comparison. „ The traitors is completely different. You get associations, groups and mutual games there. This is a group of seven. That blindfold comes off and then you stand there, with six other people. I didn’t even know if it would be my team. Then you set off, but you don’t know what the game entails. That creates a lot of uncertainty, you have no idea what you have ended up in.”
Still, he went in with full conviction. “I got the adventurous from my father from an early age. We participated with the whole family Greetings from the jungle in Kenya in 2007. Looking back you think, what did we do?”
Participant Freek Bartels also participated in 2014 Who is the mole? . “This program is a combination of the adventurous of Who is the mole? and the interpersonal of The traitors ”, he compares. “An addition to this program is that both elements are combined.”
RTL 4, 8 p.m