Everything You Missed From Season 1 of MUN’s Official Reality Show: Too Cold to Handle

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By now, any reality TV fans are likely familiar with the sizzling-hot reality dating game show, Too Hot to Handle. The premise is simple: ten singles must live in close proximity, undergoing challenges and activities together without engaging in kissing or any other romantic, intimate behaviour at the risk of losing coveted prize money.

What fans may not know is that Memorial University’s own spin-off of the series is going strong. Filming happened over the winter break leading into the 2023 winter semester.

MUNL offers an academic twist to this premise with the brand-new student reality challenge show, Too Cold to Handle (TCTH). The show, hosted by our very own Sammy the Seahawk, follows ten students living in residence over winter break. TCTH offers viewers a fun and energetic cast of business students, engineers, chemistry students, and psychologists, who are all equally exhausted after finals. The show has them living in close quarters on a single floor of Cluett Hall.

The catch? Contestants are not allowed to talk about the weather, or the prize money pool will shrink.

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This challenge may seem simple enough for those cozy at home, spending the holidays with their families. Still, it’s more challenging for students on campus over the break than it sounds. St. John’s weather is highly unpredictable, eventful, and occasionally inconvenient. For these contestants, it might cost them a significant portion of their potential prize.

It took only two episodes for a slip-up to happen. In the first week, tension was high with fresh snowfall on the ground. All eyes were on the contestants in a watchful will-they-won’t-they as several hopeful winners were seen eyeing the outdoors with contempt. The tension finally broke as contestant Hashini, a business student from Sri Lanka, was forced to walk home from Sobeys after being unable to get a cab. She returned to the residence, unable to help herself, unleashing a storm of colourful complaints that forced the shows’ censors to get creative.

This incident might not have caused a significant drop in prize cash. Still, Contestant Matthew, an aspiring biochemist from Alberta, insisted that the current situation was nothing compared to the weather he’d experienced in his home province.

“I swear you never saw anything like the real cold back in the Fort,” Matthew stated, oblivious to the cameras capturing his rule-breaking. “You’d go down the street when the snow hits and you’d be just shy of it but you can’t even see the Timmy’s in that wind. You haven’t seen nothing yet.”

While seemingly harmless, this small interaction between the two students cost the entire group $10,000 of their $100,000 total grand prize, resulting in dismay intensifying the negative feelings of being snowed in. The final total remains to be seen, with reports of severe winds on the way, which may complicate things even further.

As of December 19th, the University has released a statement that the remaining prize money will be paid in Mary Brown’s and Booster Juice gift cards.

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