Review:

Celebrity Treasure Island welcomes a brand new season and feels like coming home after your home renovation.

It’s familiar, it’s comfortable, and you know you can take your shoes off and curl up on the couch, but it’s just a little different, like after your house is renovated.

Thank god for things getting boring.

It’s time to get New Zealand excited, as this season includes not only an all-new lineup of middle-class celebrities, but also Dunn, Dunn, Dunn, three stylish intruders.

scared? You shouldn’t, and maybe you should, because the first glimpse of Mike King — an intruder — would have been hot last week.

And I don’t mean sweating, but more steam coming out of his ears, a little hot, and I honestly don’t know which is scarier.

There’s a fine line in implementing the changes, and thankfully the show does it perfectly because while there are plenty of new celebrities and an interesting twist, there’s still some of our favorite hosts.

Enter Matt Chisholm and Bree Tomasel, who started showing off on a sad note, paying homage to Inga Tuigamala.

The former rugby league star was due to play for his chosen charity, Alliance Health Plus, but he sadly passed away on February 24. As an ode to the beloved star, celebrities and hosts alike agreed that the first $5,000 should go to Tuigamala’s charity.

After everyone wiped away their tears, they went straight to the game. Like last year, there were three teams.

Mangō – Who can be an athlete too because they all look like they came out of a sports magazine photo, or should I say Olympic PR photos? Yes, it’s scary.

Kuaka – The team you definitely want to be stuck with at the event. Not only because of the lively Karen O’Leary, but because they’ve given me a healthy family vibe. I can’t explain it, but these things stick together.

Finally, Kauri, I’m going to continue to assume he’s going to be the problem child, drama, if you will. I think they’ll host the show, my assumption is based entirely on celebrity scientist Dr. Joel Lindlaub’s business in the front and a mullet party in the back.

The first challenge was a lot of water sports, teamwork and mountain climbing, well, sure, it was fun, but mostly it made me realize how long my gym membership had been neglected.

Now, just in case you’re sitting at home thinking you can complete the challenge better than a celebrity, Alex King — the radio host and daughter of Mike King — got it straight.

“When you watch it on TV, you think oh, I can do it, and then you get involved, and it’s a lot harder.”

In true CTI fashion, there was a puzzle part to the challenge, and Kauri eventually won the contest, leading hilarious and sassy dancer Elvis Lopeti to say, “Don’t come to us darling, darling, darling, because we just beat you all everyone.”

Funky comments won my heart, and Lopeti will now be my biased pick for this season’s winner, but as for Kauri’s win? They will live in the best camps.

Unfortunately, Kauaka came last, but they didn’t let them down. In fact, actor Eds Eramiha sees it as a positive. “These are not losses; they are lessons,” he said.

Chisholm and Thomasel pop up as the team settles down at camp to watch our intruders, All Blacks legend Rob Krebb, squash player Mrs Susan Devoy and mental health advocate Kim, to their dismay, was told to stay put.

It wouldn’t be Treasure Island without another challenge, so the team left what looked a bit like wrestling and Ripper football while blindfolded.

It’s an interesting combination that gets even more interesting when Kauri’s ex-Black Fern Melodie Robinson gets lively while Mangō’s Jesse Tuke tries to rip off his flag.

After wrapping his arms around the sports commentator, Robinson giggled at the confession camera, “How cute, he’s 20 years younger than me.”

The winner of the challenge ultimately falls into the hands of the loser. Yes, Kauaka, they earned the right to pick everyone’s captain.

King Jnr was chosen to be the captain of her team and delivered the news that entrepreneur Iyia Liu will be captain of Mangō. This soon led to her teammate and Shortland Street star Courtney Lewis yelling “go girls”.

Women support women and we love seeing it.

Meanwhile, Foday was chosen to captain Kauri, “My advantage is being the boss.” She smirks.

We end the episode with Yoo’s challenge to win the first captain – surprising everyone, including herself. She has a sneaky card that can give Mangō a minute ahead in any challenge.

Everything seems fine in camp right now, but if the Raiders’ two minutes of screen time have taught us anything, it’s to be ready for some shocking twists.

Celebrity Treasure Island airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+.