OverviewShipwrecked: Battle of the Islands returned for another series on the 21st of January 2007, again narrated by Craig Kelly. There are the same groups, Tigers and Sharks, as last year and the same islands too. This time the islands were initially split with all the males on Shark island and the females on Tiger island. The prize money still remains as £70,000, which the Tigers in turn won. A day before the first episode, T4 aired the show Shipwrecked: Meet the islanders, which showed viewers the islanders' audition tapes.
On the 3rd of June The Tigers were declared winners. (16-15 against the sharks)
The "Shipwrecker Of The Year" was decided in the T4 studio reunion on the 10th June. The finalists for the boys were: Ben Lunt, Paul Harris and James Green. The finalists for the girls were: Lianne Dauban, Jane Barrie and Lucy Buchanan. Ben Lunt was the winner. Not only did he win the title but he also won £15,000.
Tigers took the crown of Shipwrecked Champions 2007 after no nominations from either tribe.
The original tigers included; Fiona Merry, Lianne Dauban, Lucy Buchanan, (other tiger originals were Sophia Wardman and Terri Jones, who later joined the Sharks). The originals tiger girls were later joined by Amy Blackburn (who later joined the sharks), Ben "macben" Cochrane, Ben "Scouse Ben" Lunt, James Green, Allen Brandie (who after 2 weeks left the show), Louis Rennocks, Jane Barrie (was won as a pontoon prize by the sharks, but later joined the tigers), Ben "Chez" Chesney, Francesca Willi, Fliss Jaine, Jamie Goldthorpe and Lucy Carr.
The original Sharks were Stevie Thomas, Joe Stone, Stuart Mann, Will Colin (and Lorenzo Preecha who left the series) These original shark boys were joined by; Paul "Marine" Harris, Jo Davis, Naomi Millbank-Smith, Amy Blackburn, Terri Jones (defected tiger), Sophia Wardman (defected tiger), Elisa McNally, Ella Bowman, Kim Davidson and Jonno Burden.
The Final vote was cast by the previous years originals, Charlie Freeman and John Melvin, who chose the Tigers as the winners.
ControversyTo date, three contestants have been in the National Press for acts of racism, theft and accusing of putting castaways into a bad light on purpose for the sake of ratings.
On the Season Premiere, contestant Lucy Buchanan was put into a bad press when she stated that she backs slavery, claiming black people are "really bad" and saying she was open to many cultures but should not bring them to Britain. Ofcom received 196 complaints[1]. The press also called for Bristol University to consider axing her from the course she had enrolled in[2]. This came just after Celebrity Big Brother contestants Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd were accused of racism towards Bollywood Star Shilpa Shetty.
Shark Island contestant Lorenzo Preecha defended Lucy from claims that she was a racist saying she was "a pawn in their game" and "she is being used by the producers". Days later, it was revealed that Lorenzo decided to quit the contest after three weeks, but he actually left on Day 70[3].
Week 12 contestant Louis Rennocks was charged with theft of alcohol from a local Sainsbury's and may be fined his winnings if the tribe he joins (the Tigers) wins[4]. He was later arrested at Heathrow airport on the 26 January 2007[5].
Notable Moments- Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands 2007 is the first season to divide the first ten contestants by their gender.
- Lucy Buchanan is the only castaway to use up both her island moves.
- Lorenzo Preecha is the second person to leave the game, same as Geoff from the previous season. What is more interesting to note is that they are both alumni of the Shark Tribe.
- Sophia and Allen (both members of the Tiger Island) opted to nominate themselves in Week 10, the second time two or more islanders chose to move from the same island at the same time.
- Allen Brandie marks the first time a member of Tiger Island voluntarily left the game.
- The castaways this year tripled the punishment rate in comparison to the previous year. There were three acts of rule breaking (namely, stepping onto the rival island without permission), with Terri being the main culprit or part of plans to break rules.
- The Tigers from week 11 to week 14 managed to win four castaways from Sharks (one being Jane, the pontoon prize, and the other three from the weekly beach party). This marked a new record in Shipwrecked for the most consecutive wins by a tribe of new people.
- Naomi has since pursued a career in glamour modelling, in a small shoot with the magazine Nuts.
Lianne and Amy both appeared in a small shoot for FHM. - Two former castaways appeared in the last week of the competition. John Melvin and Charlie Freeman were a Shark and a Tiger, respectively, in the 2006 series.
