Friends Like These is a South African television game show based on the British format of the same name and produced locally by Urban Brew Studios in which each week an all-male team of friends competes against an all-female group of friends to win a dream holiday.

The show features two teams of five players each - a team of male friends and a team of female friends.

The teams compete against each other at various challenges, none of which rely on strength, height or weight but rather on control, balance, strategy, memory, technique, dexterity, puzzle solving and, above all, the ability to remain calm.

The prize is a dream holiday which all or none of the winners get to go on.

The first round of challenges eliminates one of the teams, whereafter the game moves into a final round in which the winning team plays face to face to win their individual holiday tickets.

But this is where their friendship is sorely tested - each team member plays for another team member and based on whether they get their answer right or not their friend wins a ticket - or not.

This means that a team member can win a holiday ticket for his or her friend, only to be let down by the same person, forfeiting their own holiday.

The questions are taken from a list of 10 things each team member writes down about themselves before the show, and test the friends to see how well they know their mate.

A further twist is that once those with tickets have been decided they have the opportunity to answer an "all or nothing" question. If they get it right everybody - including those who didn't win tickets - gets to go on holiday. If they get it wrong, however, they all go home empty-handed.

The show is all about testing friendships, with a cool prize thrown in.

Broadcast Notes

Season 9 premiered on SABC1 on Saturday 22 January 2011, at 18h30. After the 13th episode the season went on hiatus to accommodate the second season of Class Act and resumed with Episode 14 on Saturday 23 July 2011, at 18h30.