Branson puts high-fliers to the test on TV

The 16 stars of the show live in a castle when they are not jet-setting around the world.

Each week, one of the contestants is dropped from the show and left behind on the runway of an airport.

Among the tests are skydiving, bungee-jumping and parachuting.

In the first episode the contestants walk across a narrow metal plank between two hot air balloons high above the earth.

“We took the cast on a real roller-coaster ride,” Branson told the New York Post. “There’s no point in making a programme unless people are going to be at the edge of their seats and find it gripping.”

The reviewers are impressed with Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s Quest for the Best, being screened on Fox.

But many are sceptical that the businessman will give such a senior job to the reality show winner.

USA Today called Branson an “appealingly upbeat boss, savvy enough to realise that eccentric billionaires are best used in small doses”.

But it remained sceptical as to whether the winner would really become a top Virgin executive.

The reviewer asks why performing high-risk stunts, like the balloon walk, qualifies the contestants to be business high-fliers.

“But since Branson has a billion and I don’t, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this stunt.”

Hollywood trade paper Variety said “the series is compelling enough viewing despite its more ridiculous moments, thanks largely to the steadying presence of Richard Branson”.

When he announced plans for the show earlier in the year, Branson accepted that the programme was excellent free publicity for the domestic airline service Virgin will soon launch in the US.

Last month he unveiled plans for Virgin Galactic, which he said would provide commercial space travel by 2008.