Dennis Cho, an ICU Trauma nurse from Indianapolis, is set to star in the latest CBS competition show “The Summit.”
“The Summit,” which premieres a sneak peek on CBS at 9 p.m. ET on Sept. 29, follows a group of 16 strangers embarking on a hike through the New Zealand Alps, each carrying an equal share of $1 million in their backpacks. These strangers must not only work together to overcome the difficult terrain and changing elements, but also navigate challenges, eliminations and twists presented by the “Mountain Keeper” along the way.
“The most challenging aspect of the show is the social strategy,” Cho told the Recorder. “I did not realize the competitive social strategy and the intensity of the social strategy, like, the proponent of the game is, if not majority, of how you win the game.”
Cho, 29, is originally from Glenrock, NJ, but he relocated to Indianapolis to study nursing at Butler University. He eventually landed a job working in trauma critical care at IU Health before later moving to interventional radiology. Cho is passionate about cancer research and promoting early cancer screenings for people of color — which is partly why he decided to audition for “The Summit.”
“The Summit” combines some of the characteristics of CBS’s other reality shows, such as “Big Brother,” “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” Cho said, and each of their morals are tested throughout the journey. However, if the group fails to reach “The Summit” in 14 days, all the prize money will be lost.
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However, Cho said he has “zero experience” in hiking or mountain climbing. He packed tank tops and swim shorts thinking he would be spending time at the beach not climbing a mountain — the show’s first of many surprise twists.
Despite being inexperienced, Cho went in ready to play a competitive and “cutthroat game”. Although this attitude resulted in the show portraying him as the villain, Cho said he is grateful for the opportunity as it allowed him to add to the still lacking Asian representation in the media and inevitably make lifelong friends.
“I knew that I was gonna play a cutthroat, cutthroat game where it was me versus you, I’m going to choose me every single time,” Cho said. “But I also knew I needed people that backed me up, and I needed people aligned with me to make sure that I was safe.”
When asked what he would do with the prize money if he won, Cho listed several things, including paying off his and his sister’s student loan debt, taking his generation Korean American family on a trip back to their hometown and starting a nonprofit organization to help provide resources to early cancer screenings in people of color.
“Earlier detection equals greater, better outcomes for patients,” Cho said. “To be able to just absolutely … slash that health disparity gap would just be a huge meaningful impact just for me, but also my past loved ones that have battled cancer as well.”
The sneak peek premiere of “The Summit” airs at 9 p.m. on Sept. 29 before moving to its regular time slot beginning at 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 on the CBS Television Network. An encore of the first episode will air at 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 2 and will also be available to stream on Paramount+.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
