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It’s Jane Yee, everybody! (Image: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal)
It’s Jane Yee, everybody! (Image: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal)

Pop CultureJanuary 8, 2023

The Spinoff’s Jane Yee is joining Treasure Island: Fans v Faves!

It’s Jane Yee, everybody! (Image: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal)
It’s Jane Yee, everybody! (Image: TVNZ / Design: Archi Banal)

The co-host of The Spinoff’s reality TV podcast The Real Pod has recapped every moment of Celebrity Treasure Island since 2019. Now, she’s going in. 

Jane Yee loves reality television with a passion that few of us can match. As co-host of reality TV and popular culture podcast The Real Pod with Alex Casey and Duncan Greive, she has watched, discussed and dissected every detail of Celebrity Treasure Island for the last few years. Now The Real Pod is about to get even realer, with today’s announcement that Yee – television presenter, award-winning writer and head of podcasts at The Spinoff – is about to make her reality TV debut on Treasure Island: Fans v Faves.

That’s right, if you’ve ever wondered how far a “normie” could go on Celebrity Treasure Island, you’re about to find out. In the new season that starts on January 30, Treasure Island returns to hot and humid Fiji, where eight non-famous superfans will compete against eight celebrities from previous seasons. It’s a shake-up of the show’s usual format that sees the underdog Fans make their reality TV dreams come true, while the experienced Faves – including Dame Susan Devoy, Lance Savali and two-time winner Josh Kronfeld – play a game they think they know against people they don’t. The winner – fan or fave – will earn $50,000 for their chosen charity.


Give The Real Pod a follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.


For most non-celebrity New Zealanders, going on a reality TV show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. During a busy day of pre-show publicity in Fiji, Yee says she agreed to Fans v Faves to increase listeners to her “silly little pod”, but also because she knew she’d be cross at herself if she turned the offer down. Treasure Island is a delightfully weird school camp for adults where a curious mix of castaways spend three weeks chucking potatoes in holes and firing giant slingshots at each other. “I love the silliness that sits right alongside its impactfulness in terms of the ways charities get talked about, the relationships we see, and the heartache and emotion alongside ‘smack an egg on your face’,” Yee says of the show. “To me, that’s perfect television.”

The Real Pod just got realer (Photo: TVNZ)

Now Yee will make that perfect television, rather than simply talking about it. While her Faves rival Art Green immersed himself in ice-baths and Lana Searle climbed steep hills, Yee kept her Treasure Island preparation deliberately low-key. “I bought a lot of exercise gear, I went to the gym. I was hitting the pool twice.” A day? “No, twice. Just twice in total.” It’s all part of Yee’s grand plan. She knows her strengths, which are coming home after work, getting into her pyjamas and eating a snack in front of The Chase.

Turns out, these are highly transferable skills. “We don’t need more athletes on our team. We’ve got a league player, we’ve got a personal trainer. They need someone who knows how to just sit down,” Yee says, reclining in a plastic deck chair. “My strength is going to be sitting down and napping.”

There’s no doubt Treasure Island will give Yee fresh insights into the reality of reality TV. The former C4 presenter says getting back in front of the camera was like “putting on a comfy old sock”, but despite watching the show for a living, Yee doesn’t assume she knows how to play the perfect Treasure Island game. ”If you’ve ever listened to our podcast, you’ll know we get things wrong all the time, and I’m bound to fall into the traps that I’ve talked about before and said ‘how could they be so stupid’?” she jokes. “I think I’ll come out the other side with a lot more appreciation of how hard this is, and that not everyone who looks like an idiot is necessarily an idiot.”

Jane Yee: The hero us sitting-downers have been waiting for (Photo: TVNZ)

What Yee does know a lot about are Treasure Island’s meagre food rations, intense physical challenges and baffling mind games. Her strategy is to be flexible (“like my birth plan”) but she’s also aware this experience will push her far beyond her comfort zone. “A lot of the humour is a lovely defence mechanism for the fact that I’m shitting myself and I’m already looking around going, ‘this person can do that, this person can do that and I don’t really belong here’,” she says. “Classic imposter syndrome stuff, so I think that will be a big challenge.”

Whatever challenges Yee faces on the island, she’ll be raising money for her chosen charity Autism New Zealand. Like most of the charities chosen by the Treasure Island castaways, this is an extremely personal cause for Yee. Her eldest son has autism, and she praises the work ANZ does to educate people about the condition and the benefits of creating a world that works for autistic people. “It’s an invisible disability in most cases, and he looks just like any other regular kid,” she says of her son. “While I don’t want him treated differently, I want him to be understood.”

For all of her self-deprecating humour and pre-game nerves, make no mistake: Yee wants to win. Treasure Island: Fans v Faves is about more than just making her reality TV dreams come true. “I’d love a woman to win, I would love to win for me personally, I’d love to win for my kids. I’d love to win for the charity.” She pauses for a moment, perhaps to imagine the sound her spade will make when it hits the treasure chest. “I’d love to win because I don’t think I can,” she says. “It would shock no one more than myself.”

Read more: Who’s who on Treasure Island: Fans v Faves?


Give The Real Pod a follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.


Treasure Island: Fans v Faves premieres Monday 30 January at 7.30pm on TVNZ2 and streams on TVNZ+.

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Pop CultureJanuary 8, 2023

Who’s who on Treasure Island: Fans v Faves?

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Meet the familiar – and not-so-familiar – faces of the castaways vying to win $50,000 for charity. 

Hot on the heels of Jesse Tuke’s impressive Celebrity Treasure Island win only a few months ago, the great TVNZ monolith has creaked open again and given us a new bounty of television riches. Treasure Island: Fans v Faves kicks off on January 30, but this time the nation’s favourite reality series has sailed to Fiji and taken a group of reality TV mega-fans with it.

Over the next few weeks, eight non-celebrities will compete against eight CTI favourites returning for a second crack at the Treasure Island crown, for the chance to win $50,000 for their chosen charity.

Fans v Faves is CTI with a twist, but will experience outweigh enthusiasm? Which celebrities will we see in the wild again, and which fan will watch their reality TV dreams come true? Most importantly, who will find the poo cave first? Let’s meet the castaways of Treasure Island: Fans v Faves.


For weekly recaps follow The Real Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.


The Faves:

Alex King (2022)

Who:  Radio host and actor.

Best remembered on Treasure Island for: playing alongside her father, chaos agent Mike King, and spewing up her rice and beans in the flax bushes.

Why she’s back: “To be able to play on my own, how I would play the game. I’m able to play the game without being a dick. Love you, Dad.”

Art Green (2021)

Who: Television presenter, fitness and wellness ambassador, the original Bachelor NZ.

Best remembered for: Being put up for elimination in a Richie Barnett power move that went awry when Art was beaten by puzzle queen Brynley Stent in a fierce battle of rolly-polly-bally-ropy.

What he’s looking forward to: “Getting some sleep. With a three-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in three years.”

Joe Cotton (2004)

Who: More FM Southland breakfast radio announcer, member of TrueBliss.

Best remembered for: bowing to peer pressure and cheating during a Treasure Island challenge which involved Joe being…buried alive in a coffin? Shit the 2000s were wild.

On her strategy: “Don’t shit yourself on camera. Listen, when you get to a certain age and you’ve blown out your back twice, you’ve gotta be careful of these things.”

Josh Kronfeld (2004, 2005)

Who: Former All Black, TV presenter, physiotherapist.

Best remembered for: Winning back-to-back Treasure Island titles in 2004 (Celebrity Treasure Island) and 2005 (Superstars of Treasure Island, which also featured players from Australia and Ireland).

On whether he can win a third time: “I don’t really care. I just want to do the best by my charity. I think everybody will be trying to get rid of me as soon as they can.”

Lana Searle (2021)

Who: More FM breakfast radio announcer.

Best remembered for: Being the mastermind behind the all-female Ovary Agreement, and for buying a $1 pizza in a challenge auction that made Richie Barnett really mad.

Why she’s come back: “I couldn’t deal with the fact that if I said no, I’d see other people having so much fun. As I said yes, I thought ‘you’re gonna hate yourself’ but I said yes anyway. I remember the feeling of being eliminated last time and being gutted, but then driving away in the crew car and being like, ‘that was an absolute blast’.”

Lance Savali (2021)

Who: DJ, dancer, coolest person on the planet.

Best remembered for: Being runner up to Chris Parker, and for being a strategic mastermind who still managed to stay mates with everyone.

On how he prepared for his return: “You can’t prepare for a show like this. There’s different people, different challenges. As much as you think, ‘oh yeah, I need to do this and do that’, as soon as you’re on the island, you’re fucked.”

Matty McLean (2019)

Who: TVNZ Breakfast presenter, reality survivor-show megafan.

Best remembered for: Not having to prove himself to Barbara Kendall.

On getting a second chance at Treasure Island:  “It’s not about winning, it’s about playing. I don’t want to be a fence sitter. I want to be front and centre, and if that means I go big and I go home early, fine. At least I played the game the way I wanted to play.”

Dame Susan Devoy (2022)

Who: Four-time world squash champion, former race relations commissioner.

Best remembered for: It’s impossible to choose just one Dame Suzy D memorable moment, so please enjoy volume one of the Dame’s greatest hits.

On why she’s come back: “Look, at my age I’ve decided people have made their mind up about whether they like me or not. Life’s not a popularity contest and I haven’t got a lot to lose.”

The Fans:

Adam O’Brien 

Who: The reality TV veteran competed on Survivor NZ: Thailand, where he made the top five and didn’t poo for three weeks. He also injected Botox to achieve peak game face, something he hasn’t repeated for Treasure Island. “It gave me too much of a poker face. No one trusted me, because they’d tell me something and I’d just go [stares blankly]. It felt nice, though. I had a nice smooth forehead.”

Favourite Treasure Island player: The “incredible” Candy Lane.

On whether he’ll break his no-poo record on Treasure Island: “I’ll tell you the honest truth. I didn’t shit for 22 days, but I felt amazing, like my body was just absorbing everything. I was peeing, but there was just no shit. And when it did come out, that was the worst thing. Hopefully this time I’m a little bit more prepared for the birth of it. Because that was crazy, man.”

Anna Thomas

Who: The Auckland personal trainer counts CTI alumni Chris Parker and Brynley Stent among her clients. She’s a huge physical threat who describes herself as a lone wolf, and isn’t afraid to pull someone up if she thinks they’re acting out of line.

Favourite Treasure Island player: Shannon Ryan. “She’s calm, she’s really kind, and she led with a lot of integrity and compassion.”

On her strategy: “My strategy is to lay quite low, be a good ally for people, a person they can trust. And then when I need to, slay.”

Dave Ward

Who: The Nelson port worker might be New Zealand’s biggest reality TV fan, becoming hooked on season one of Survivor in 2000 and following every season since. He also came close to making the cast of Survivor NZ – twice.

Favourite Treasure Island players: Shane Cameron, Gary Freeman and Sam Wallace, the holy trinity of 2019 finalists.

On why he came on Fans v Faves: “It’s one of those things that I’ve been wanting to be a part of for 20 years. It’s literally the top thing on my bucket list.”

Jane Yee

Who: It’s Jane Yee from The Spinoff! Co-host of The Real Pod with Duncan Greive and Alex Casey! Former C4 presenter, writer and podcaster! It’s Our Jane!!!

Favourite Treasure Island player: Puzzle queen Brynley Stent. “Brynley’s my CTI hero. I love her, I love her puzzle brain, I love her sense of humour.”

On her strategy: Jane reckons her strategy is like her birth plan: flexible.If someone tells me to push, I’ll push. If someone tells me to hold tight, I’ll hold tight. That’s pretty much it. I want to look after my people and I want to stand up for what’s right and I want to just see how far being a normie can get me in the show.”

Jessica Waru

Who: The 22-year-old singer and influencer from Northland describes herself as resilient and friendly, and can’t wait to prove herself during Treasure Island’s endurance challenges.

Favourite Treasure Island player: Elvis Lopeti. “He’s so funny and energetic and I think people love him because he’s supportive, but then he’s so confident, you know? He’s awesome.”

On how she’ll play the game: “I’m a quiet assassin. I’m the youngest of five siblings, so they’re all very tough as guts and I’m the sensitive one, but I’ve learned a lot from them. My competitive nature will definitely come out.”

Josh Oakley

Who:  Sales manager, keen sportsman, and… Dame Susan Devoy’s son.

Treasure Island player he’d like to compete against: Art Green. “He got done pretty cheaply early on [in his season] and everyone says he’s a bit of a gun, so I guess if you wanna be the best, you gotta go up against the best.”

On playing against his mum: “She probably thinks I’d have a better chance of going further than she would. She even said ‘I’ll happily fall on my sword if it means you go further than me’, you know? Sounds like what mums do, so we’ll have to see how it goes and see how the team reacts when they find out.”

Katie Middleton

Who: A 30-year-old nanny and fibre artist who describes herself as creative, sincere and “a bit of a bogan”. Not married to Prince William.

Treasure Island player she’d like to compete against: Kimberley Crossman, because they’re both “little and bubbly and loud and loving”.

Why she came on Treasure Island: “I am a Gryffindor with a Hufflepuff side to me, and for me to thrive, I need to feel the fear and do it anyway. In the past when I’ve ignored my intuition or I’ve said no to an opportunity just because of being anxious about what might happen, it has bit me in the bum.“

Micah Marsh

Who: Micah recently returned home to Waiheke Island after pursuing a rugby league career in Sydney, and prides himself on getting along with everyone he meets.

Favourite Treasure Island player: Richie Barnett, because of his rugby league background. “He’s very strong minded, and he knows what it takes to win as a team.”

First impressions of his teammates: “We gelled together straight away. We have a good mix of strengths and weaknesses throughout the team, so I feel that in challenges we can be very successful. Everyone’s just really good. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun.”

Treasure Island: Fans v Faves premieres on Monday 30 January at 7.30pm on TVNZ2 and streams on TVNZ+.


Follow our reality TV recap podcast The Real Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast provider.