SAS Australia on hold for 2024

SAS Australia may reportedly not air in 2024 for its fifth season. The show is on hold.

It first premiered on Seven in 2020 and has since seen 66 celebrity recruits go through a series of extreme physical and psychological tests. The first three seasons were flmed in NSW, but the fourth season was filmed offshore at a secret base in the Middle East.

Former world boxing champion Anthony Mundine, ‘Cocaine Cassie’, Olympians Stephanie Rice, Peter Bol and Matthew Mitcham, Balinese princess Lindy Klim, Thai cave rescue hero Dr Craig Challen and Brownlow medallist Jason Akermanis were just some of the 14 Aussie celebrities who volunteered in 2023.

SAS Australia 2023's finale saw 1.85 million total viewers tune in across Seven and 7plus, an 11% increase from 2022. 

While SAS instructor and host Ant Middleton won't be returning to the show, he will be appearing on Seven's newest season of Dancing with the Stars.

Seven has been approached for comment.

Other reality formats have recently been axed by the networks, with 10 most recently cutting The Masker Singer and The Bachelor. 

Daniel Monaghan, senior vice president of content and programming at Paramount AUNZ, told Mediaweek the sunsetting of The Bachelor and The Masked Singer is due to a volatile TV market and low ratings not justifying expensive productions.

“There were elements of The Bachelor that we were trying to reinvent and reinvigorate for that format because it was such a success for us in the early years, but it wasn’t showing the right trajectory,” he said.

“To be honest, we just need to walk away sometimes.

“If it’s still there when we’re ready to revisit it, great, but at the moment, no ratings, no revenue, means no show.”

See also: ‘We just need to walk away sometimes’: 10’s Daniel Monaghan on axing The Masked Singer and The Bachelor