I would say the competitors are less annoying than you'd get in standard US reality TV, but to be honest I just didn't find the show all that engaging. Which is a shame, because that makes 0 from 2 for successful non–Jet Lag game/reality shows from the Wendover team. And considering how damn good Jet Lag is, I'm a little surprised.
quick edit: actually, that's 0 from 3...I forgot about Abolish Everything, which I also didn't enjoy in practice nearly as much as I thought I would in theory...especially with how often what to me seemed a clearly worse presentation ended up winning.