Some TV concepts should've stayed in the brainstorming room! Join us as we count down our picks for the most disastrous game shows to ever grace television. From contestants answering trivia during childbirth to competitions about who can avoid vomiting the longest, these shows left viewers confused, disgusted, or just plain bored!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the game shows that should
00:08have stayed in the brainstorming room.
00:22Ryan Seacrest made a successful name for himself as a host of several reality TV programs.
00:27Unfortunately, he had no such success with this gem of a show.
00:31How do we even begin to explain the premise of this?
00:34Contestants answer trivia questions with their hopes of staying put in the infamous money
00:37chair.
00:38The four players who managed to sit there the longest are able to keep the cash they accumulated.
00:42So yeah, we're just confused as you are.
00:49Besides its wonky structure, the non-cohesive questions and the endangerment of those involved,
00:54it's just straight up boring to watch.
01:05Imagine trying to go against your natural instincts for a game show.
01:08Contrary to what the title suggests, the goal is for players to stay still.
01:12If they flinch, a painful punishment ensues, and whoever reacts the least is crown the winner.
01:23To add to the pressure, each contestant is the guinea pig for one of the three hosts.
01:27Meaning whichever person receives the lowest score, the comedian they're representing
01:30gets the ultimate penalty at the end.
01:33Sounds delightful, doesn't it?
01:41Instead of enjoying the show, viewers are horrified at the consequences.
01:44I mean, why are we watching people face their phobias?
01:46Who the heck wouldn't flinch if a washing machine came flying at them?
01:50Forget second-hand embarrassments, this is more like second-hand painfulness.
01:58Giving birth is one heck of an experience.
02:09Having your loved ones, doctors, and a network TV crew with you perfectly sets the vibe.
02:15Wait, what?
02:16That's right, this game show centres on parents answering trivia questions mid-birth.
02:21Okay, so the prizes benefit the newly born, which is great and all, but really?
02:32Labour can be super stressful, and intimate at times.
02:35Why would this make great TV?
02:36Viewers want to be entertained, not worry about the wellbeing of someone pushing out a baby.
02:41No wonder this only lived to see one season.
02:54Let's play a game.
02:55Choose heads or tails.
02:56Three, two, one.
02:57The answer is heads.
02:58Now, imagine that being the entire plot of a game show.
03:02Players must pick either red or black.
03:04And then again.
03:05And then again.
03:06Until there's eventually a winner.
03:12Yep, the format gets a little creative by including stunts, like choosing which colour
03:17joust will win in a tournament or win a tightrope contest.
03:19But that's it.
03:20And the involvement of huge numbers of people in the early rounds is different, but popular
03:24game shows are exciting because they're intriguing, and get you thinking about how you'd handle
03:28the situations.
03:29Simon Cowell's creation is extremely repetitive and very gimmicky, making it 100% not worth tuning
03:36into.
03:37In addition, several players involved had criminal records, which didn't help.
03:49When your show premieres the same night as President Kennedy's inauguration, you're already
04:05facing stiff competition.
04:06As it turns out, the pilot crashed so hard that the second episode was a long apology
04:11for how bad it was.
04:12That was also the final episode of the game show.
04:18The premise is that celebrities put their faces in a hole within a painting that depicted famous
04:31lyrics or movie scenes.
04:33By asking questions to the host, the objective was to guess what picture they were in.
04:37It's not that ridiculous of a plot, but the choices they made for the pictures were, well,
04:41inappropriate to say the least.
04:50The show was so poorly received that people were more excited for the commercial breaks
04:54than the series itself.
04:57It's not that bad.
04:58Yes, you are.
04:59Is it a bar?
05:00No, it's not.
05:01Is it a French bar?
05:02What's the difference?
05:045.
05:05My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad
05:07It doesn't matter if he's 50, he is the strongest guy out there.
05:12Turning a kid's joke into an entire TV show is ridiculous.
05:15Let's be honest.
05:16Children cheer on their fathers as they participate in a series of trivia and physical challenges,
05:20and you can just see the toll some of these games were taking on the fathers' bodies.
05:30It's hard to watch at times, especially when one of the dads ends up having a heart attack
05:34mid-challenge.
05:35The prize is also extremely underwhelming.
05:38All of this hardship for a mountain bike and an Xbox 360?
05:41I mean, they couldn't even give a monetary reward as well?
05:44It's no shock that the show was eventually cancelled after only eight episodes.
05:47Good riddance.
05:50Guessing games can be super fun, but this one is just so random.
06:02Players had to guess how audience members answered survey questions.
06:05If they made it to the pitfall round, they had to go through a complicated process that
06:09no one understood, involving general trivia and an elevator.
06:18The concept made absolutely no sense, but turns out it didn't even matter.
06:21The production company went bankrupt before the show even made it onto the screen.
06:25Winners and Alex Trebek, the future host of Jeopardy!, never even got paid fully.
06:30Pitfall.
06:31It is as spooky as it sounds.
06:42Players answer questions while being in a container that is either super cold or really hot.
06:46There are also other elements brought into the mix, such as shocks and lowering oxygen levels.
06:51And obviously, this show tanked.
07:02Viewers want to leave the episode happy, not like we involuntarily saw a horror movie.
07:06The winner of one show won some money and a trip to the hospital immediately after filming.
07:11The conditions were so unsafe that he received monetary reparations from Fox after saving
07:15them a lawsuit.
07:24So the show is hard to watch for viewers and horrible for contestants to experience.
07:28Thank goodness this show was cancelled after just three episodes.
07:34Close work relationships can be a sensitive conversation topic among some couples.
07:47This show takes it a step further by having a husband's wife and his secretary compete
07:52to see who knows him best.
07:54There's three groups of contestants playing simultaneously, and whichever team of women get
07:58the most right answers, wins.
08:04Besides watching marriages fall apart in real time, the concept is rooted in sexism.
08:10It doesn't matter if it's their colleagues or partners who win, the men receive money
08:14regardless.
08:19Plus, this is rather humiliating to everyone except the male spouses.
08:26No wonder the National Organization for Women spoke out against this disaster.
08:31And a 1999 revival with different female pairings fared no better.
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08:58Hell.
08:59What a whirlwind of disgust.
09:05Competitive eating and vigorous activities are cool enough to watch independently of each
09:10other, but combining them to see who's the last to vomit?
09:12I mean, we need to have a quick chat with the creator of this show, now.
09:20While some people are more tolerant of puke than others, there's only a small percentage
09:23who like to go out of their way to see it.
09:25Also, the food choices are atrocious.
09:28PB&J sandwiches and a brosier salad do not go together.
09:32If you really need to have a censored and uncensored version of your game show, maybe don't air it
09:37at all.
09:38Despite the odds, the show aired for 11 glorious episodes.
09:48So, which of these game shows should have been cancelled immediately?
09:51Let us know in the comments down below.