Will CBS’s ‘The Summit’ Return for Season 2?
Mountaineering made it to primetime in CBS’s latest reality competition series creation, The Summit. The series, the inaugural season of which premiered in the fall of 2024, featured 16 contestants who were challenged to climb a mountain in the Southern Alps in the space of two weeks, with obstacles (including twists brought in by the “Mountain’s Keeper”) and checkpoints to complete along the way. It was hosted by New Zealand-based star Manu Bennett and featured a total cash prize of $250,000.
The series is a Western version of the Australian show of the same name, which debuted in 2023 and ran for two seasons.
So will The Summit return for a second season this fall on CBS? Here’s a look at what to know about The Summit Season 2.
Is The Summit renewed for Season 2?
No. CBS canceled the series in April 2025 after just one season. It was given the kibosh alongside the network’s new original comedy series Poppa’s House.
Why was The Summit canceled?
Despite airing with the almost-evergreen reality competition series Survivor, The Summit failed to garner anywhere near the same audience. It averaged 2.6 million viewers in the first season.
Plus, reviews for the series’ first (and, ultimately, last) season were not positive. Vulture‘s Roxana Hadadi criticized the inclusion of everyday people instead of experienced climbers in the cast; “The Summit is guilty of the exact flattening of a perilous experience Krakauer warned against in Into Thin Air, a first-person account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster that left numerous climbers dead and others stranded on the mountain in the middle of a devastating storm.” And USA Today‘s Kelly Lawler wrote that Bennett’s hosting was “woodenly” executed and called it “a cheap Survivor knockoff on a mountain.”
Who won The Summit Season 1?
Three of the 16 contestants were able to complete the climb without withdrawing, getting eliminated, or being medically evacuated: salesman Nick Morgan of Madisonville, Louisiana, Air Force Sergeant Ladeania “Punkin” Jackson of Columbus, Mississippi, and Therron Pittman, a waiter from Los Angeles, California. Each of the contestants earned the $250,000 they carried up for their completion of the challenge, and the $250,000 that was removed from the game — due to other players’ forfeit or evacuations — was voted by the eliminated players to be awarded to Nick, who ended up with $500,000 in total winnings.
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