Boston Rob gave an interview to Reality TV Magazine about his new show
Tontine. He made a few new points:

Reality TV Magazine: Do you think physical fitness or mental strength
will be more important with contestants [on Tontine]?
Boston Rob: You’re going to have to have a combination of both.
There’s going to be physical challenges, mental challenges, but you’re
going to need to be well rounded. You have to be able to do well in
both of those areas, as well as strategically, which is very important.

Reality TV Magazine: As you’ve mentioned, Tontine takes place on seven
continents, including Antarctica. What kind of cost and trouble is
involved with traveling down there and filming?
Boston Rob: The logistics of it, I mean, I’m not on the production end.
I know that we’re going there. I know that we’re filming this show in
the Fall, which is actually the Spring time in the Southern hemisphere,
and last year in November when I was on the Amazing Race All Stars, we
went to the Southern tip of Argentina, and we were about a hundred miles
away from Antarctica, not even, you could see it from one island to the
other, and it wasn’t too bad. It was like twenty-five or thirty
degrees, so it wasn’t like there were fifty mile an hour below winds.
We’re going there in essentially what is the cusp of their Summer, so
just imagine what we’re going to be able to do in Antarctica for
challenges, and people can say they went to Antarctica.

Reality TV Magazine: Tontine has 15 contestants and it lasts 100 days.
Will all 15 contestants be there for the all 100 days or are there
going to be eliminations every week?
Boston Rob: No, there’s an elimination element to it, and each
contestant is going to be given a key at the beginning of the game. The
key represents the ability to unlock part of the ten million dollar
fortune, and they’re going to compete for each others keys. Essentially
your key is your life in the game, and if you lose your key to another
contestant, you’re out. In the end, the person that possesses all
fifteen keys will be declared the winner.

Reality TV Magazine: How will contestants be eliminated from the show?
Do they get kicked off for losing a challenge or is there some type of
elimination vote?
Boston Rob: I don’t want to get into the whole logistics of everything
that’s going to happen, but I can tell you that what we have planned is
pretty intense competition, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Reality TV Magazine: Will the contestants that don’t win get anything?
Will they get paid anything for like second place?
Boston Rob: Winner take all....

Reality TV Magazine: What made you select Nashville as one of your
casting cities?
Boston Rob: Nashville has always been great for Southern, middle
America, working class people, and just great television. I mean you
guys have that Nashville Star television show born out of here. You
know, you have a very diverse group right here in Nashville with the
whole music and the culture. You know, it’s something different that
you don’t see in a lot of the big cities, so it’s definitely one of our
top stops....

Reality TV Magazine: Other than the $10 million prize, what else makes
Tontine different or better than other reality TV shows?
Boston Rob: It’s the only show that’s ever been done on all seven
continents. It’s not like the Race where they go to a few each time.
It’s the longest show in the history of production. Survivor is 39
days. Tontine is three times as long, and it’s ten times the biggest
prize that’s ever been offered. Other than that…I mean it’s basically
like these other shows on steroids…. . . .

Reality TV Magazine: Are there any castmates from Survivor or Amazing
Race that you keep in touch with?
Boston Rob: There are a few. Peter Harkey from the first season of
Survivor. The guy that actually got voted off first in my season is
from Massachusetts. Whenever I go home to Boston, we go out to dinner
or hang out together. I talk to Sean [Rector] from my season, but for
the most part…John Vito from the Amazing Race I speak with pretty
regularly, when I go to New York I see him…that’s about it. Survivor
All Stars, a lot of people, half the Survivor All Stars couldn’t get
past the fact that it was a game and took a lot of what happened real
personal. I don’t know if it was just bad feelings or jealousy, but it
never really materialized to the point of continued friendships. I mean
with these shows in general, like my motto was I’m not going into these
things to make friends, I’m going in to try to win the game. The
ultimate irony there is that not only did I make a friend, but I made my
best friend and the girl that I married. Reality TV has given me a lot,
and I’m grateful for it. I’m excited about this next stage. Like I
said, making that transition from contestant to host is something that
really hasn’t been done, not on a major network in a real big primetime
show, and I was honored to be asked, and I’m excited to do it. I mean
that’s part of the reason why I’m actually traveling the country this
Summer doing the casting call is that I want to be actively involved in
the contestants that we choose.

http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2007/07/tontine-the-ins.html