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Martin Shore

The Underdog: Josh Must Win guide — winner, cast, celebrities and everything you need to know

The Underdog: Josh Must Win key art featuring Pete Wicks, Amber Gill, Josh, Vicky Pattinson and Nick Grimshaw (L-R).

The Underdog: Josh Must Win flipped the script on reality TV when it arrived in March. 

This fresh E4 series put a fresh spin on reality format juggernauts like Love Island and Big Brother. On the surface, The Underdog: Josh Must Win invited a larger-than-life cast to take part in a new popularity contest called The Favourite, hosted by Nick Grimshaw.

Our confident castmates all thought they were competing to be chosen as the most popular one from the bunch. What the group didn't know was that four celebrities were pulling the strings behind the scenes, doing everything in their power to make the group's underdog group come out on top. Here's everything you need to know about The Underdog: Josh Must Win..

The Underdog: Josh Must Win: how to watch and release date

The Underdog: Josh Must Win started airing on E4 on Monday, March 25 at 9 pm, with new episodes airing Monday - Wednesday in the same slot. The series came to an end on Tuesday, April 9. 

If you weren't caught up or want to revisit some of the show's biggest moments, you can stream all of it on the Channel 4 website.

Who won Josh Must Win?

Josh did end up winning the show! (Image credit: E4)

You'll be pleased to know that the reality TV/social experiment mash-up played out the right way, as Josh (an atypical reality star) was crowned the winner, and all nine competitors got to leave ten grand richer! 

The Underdog: Josh Must Win premise

The Underdog: Josh Must Win saw a group of would-be reality stars heading to a luxury home, where they thought they were participating in a popularity contest TV show called The Favourite, hosted by Nick Grimshaw.

Secretly, our four celebrity panelists were hidden away in a nearby room. From their observation room, the group got to keep a close eye on the proceedings, where they did their best to try and influence the proceedings

From the observation desk, they assigned tasks, spoke to the housemates and revealed surprise format changes, making using their own experiences of reality TV to try and guarantee Josh's win... all while trying to keep up the facade of the fake show and keeping their involvement a secret!

At the end of each day in the house, the contestants were asked to vote for their most and least favorite housemate: every time Josh wasn't voted least favorite in the building, an extra £10,000 was added to the prize pot that all nine stars stood to share.

Throughout the series, the unwitting cast were subjected to a "public vote" which saw one of them bowing out. Except, there was never a real vote, the celebs were just sending one person home.

The Underdog: Josh Must Win celebrity panel?

Our celebrity panel are raring to go. (Image credit: E4)

The four celebrity masterminds for The Underdog: Josh Must Win all had plenty of experience from the world of reality TV. They are: Nick Grimshaw, Amber Rose Gill, Vicky Pattinson and Pete Wicks. 

Nick Grimshaw has watched a ton of telly during his tenure on Celebrity Gogglebox, and he's been on our TV screens and airwaves as a TV and radio presenter for over a decade now,

Amber Rose Gill found fame as a Love Island winner. She won the series coupled up with Greg O'Shea in 2019. Since then, she has appeared on a variety of UK shows ranging from This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine, The Full Treatment, Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, and Celebrity Mastermind. She published her first novel (co-written with Nadine Gonzalez) in 2022.

Vicky Pattinson first appeared on our screens as one of the stars of MTV's Geordie Shore from 2011 to 2014. Following on from the show, she's taken part in plenty of shows, including Ex on the Beach, This Morning, Virtually Famous, Through the Keyhole, and, notably, she won the 15th series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! 

Pete Wicks is best known for being a cast member of the ITV reality series, The Only Way is Essex. He joined the show for its 15th series, and, like his fellow panelists, he's gone on to appear on our screens in various shows. He's appeared in Celebs Go Dating, Celebrity MasterChef, The Celebrity Circle, and The Real Full Monty: Jingles Balls. He's also been co-hosting the Staying Relevant podcast with his friend Sam Thompson (Made in Chelsea).

The Underdog: Josh Must Win cast

Here's a round up of each our Josh Must Win stars, starting with our unlikely winner...

(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)
(Image credit: E4)

Is there a The Underdog: Josh Must Win trailer? 

Yes! Channel 4 gave us our very first look at the competitors (including Josh) and explained the concept of the show. The confident stars think they're in the house to take part in The Favourite, without knowing that our four celebs were pulling the strings in the background...

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