Recently, I’ve found myself watching Squid Games : The Challenge. An IP-Based spinoff competition series based off the South Korean Drama. While the drama is pointing a lens at reality television, capitalism, and the lengths people will go to “win”. The television series presents it as a reality series, complete with “interviews” set in a police confessional, “games” that are played in spirit of Squid Games (while “Tug of War” being switched out for a Battleship type game), and “tests” that are more in spirit of reality television, where people can secretly eliminate players, or rounds where “the last one in is a rotten egg” (and by “rotten egg” we mean eliminated) with silly death sequences where the contestants get squibbed with ink and then "play dead” (in acting ranging from “missed cue” to “overdramatic hoping to get a spinoff”)
I actually think, as a game show, it is pretty captivating, however, if it did not have the “Squid Games IP”, this battle-royale style series would most likely flop.
But luckily it didn’t.
Now, I really love game shows (no shit) and New Media is “kind of my wheelhouse” as I talk about YouTube, Twitch, Streaming Services, Netflix, etc. pretty much most of the time on “A Podcast”. It’s kind of both my areas of expertise.
So I was thrilled reading C21 recently and came across this article.
Netflix’s global unscripted and documentary chief Brandon Riegg says the streamer is making it a priority to find shiny-floor studio shows and gameshow formats as it looks to branch into new genres.
He admitted that shiny floor shows were “an area we’ve not cracked yet, if I’m being totally candid” but said it is a “big priority” today.
“Those are hard shows to do. It’s not easy to find ones that are really going to break out, but we are focusing our efforts on finding a big shiny-floor performance show. When they work, they can run in perpetuity, almost,”
And Brandon gets it. That’s been my big problem with “the internet” for nearly twelve years. I have seen every innovation, tested every innovation, and outlived all of them.
I’ve seen “Zoom Call Quiz Shows” when they were as far back as StickAM
I have hosted a “Live Bingo Show” on Twitch (before gambling became a weird icky area that is common)
I have seen the rise of Mr Beast “Challenge” videos on YouTube and the earlier variants. (Most of which were radio contests, believe it or not)
If anything is going to be my “White Whale” in this timeline, it is quite simply - Successful Game Show on the Internet.
I’ve seen podcast quizzes from “Pinpoint” in the Early BuzzerBlog era, to the “Lateral” game hosted by Tom Scott. These are some really strong influenced choices. And they are, at least to me, building blocks of which to grow the germ of an idea.
One Day, I Will Make a Successful Game Show on the Internet.
I have seen some games show up here and there, and are very lovely. As discussed earlier this year, YouTube has some really heavy-hitters with “Jet Lag The Game” (Also on Streaming Service Nebula) and “Game Changer” (Also on Dropout) but also what we see is things like “The Sidemen” play game shows, We see Mr Beast try a new game show idea out for an episode and then probably never again (In recent history, the “100 Boxes” which is like Solitary Meets Squid Game; as well as “Ten Death Traps” with $100,000 per success but a fail and it’s all over)
Normal production logic would suggest “100 Boxes”, in Which 100 Cubes with a 1 year old to a 100 year old inside would be a mini-series, akin to “Solitary” on Fox Reality, lasting maybe 4 or 5 episodes before a winner is crowned.
“Death Trap” if it went into the world of game shows, would be replicated over and over with multiple contestants, having “the bank of traps” and rotated out. akin to a Pricing Game on The Price is Right, or when Drag Race does “Snatch Game”
But instead? It’s moved on, And that’s your YouTube For You.
So Let’s Get Back Into Netflix.
Obviously, this is just a rambling page on the internet. I am sure there are consultants that know this stuff just as well as I do.
In fact, one article that I read a while back, came from one of my favorite websites Bothers-Bar about the fate of “TV Quizes”. and it’s slow death because of less viewership and eyeballs (and therefore Budget, which is the biggest decision maker on Game Shows)
Netflix has had a great track record with some shows - Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, Is It Cake?, Nailed It, The Floor is Lava. It’s all good good. But for every big success, you have your “Cheat”, Bullshit, Awake, Flinch, Iron Chef: Search for an Iron Legend.
When you’re making a show on Netflix, even if it gets that okay and production, almost certainly the track record for “Season 2” is even more of a decimation.
For every 100 shows that get pitched, 10 will get the season 1, but only 1 will see season 2.
The chances are very slim-to-none, and while HEY, I WILL GLADLY THROW ALL MY FORMATS AND GAME SHOW IDEAS TO THE WORLD FOR FREE (and most likely never get paid)
I feel, it’s probably better to see the kinds of things Netflix might need to be "a bit successful” at the “shiny floor game show”.
WHAT IS A SHINY FLOOR GAME SHOW?
Linoleum, mostly. But you ever watch one of these game shows, it could be Jeopardy, it could be Wheel of Fortune, or Jeopardy or if the UK, a Pointless or the new “Deal or No Deal” and the first thing you notice is that really shiny black floor and the “spaceship set”? Thats a Shiny Floor Game. Shiny Floor Games, besides being my very short lived game show blog, is also a quick-and-easy way to say “In-Studio Game Show” If this was the 1970s, expect these to be called “Orange Shag Carpeting Shows” and if this was the 2000s the “oh shit that pylon is going to fall down and kill you” shows. Some “Shiny Floor Games” aren’t even shiny floors. Any watch of “Hollywood Game Night” would show the fake hardwood flooring and rugs. And also, shows like “Shark Tank”, are considered a “Shiny Floor Game” because of it’s simple “challenge” and “goal” (even if it needs to be slightly manufactured, but that’s for another day)
WHY DON’T THEY WORK (ON NETFLIX)?
Cheat, Bullshit, Awake, etc. Most of these quiz and challenge based shows simply don’t work on Netflix. A great format like “Cheat”, while beloved, simply isn’t going to get the attention of an audience when it’s “the same shit every episode”, in fact, one could argue, that’s the caviat to why game shows simply can’t work on a streamer like Netflix (and in many ways, the internet in general)
TV Channels like GSN and Fox Daytime have their own formats, TV Channels because of budgets are now reliant on unscripted more than ever to try and save some money on whatever leftover audiences are available. (It’s also why budgets, a thing I get upset about are sometimes stuck being $10,000 as a top prize)
On Netflix, the shows that somehow “work” are the reality-series that have a hook, and an arc, like a movie, and a proper finale. Shows like “The Circle” in which contestants have to use a social game and catfish (or play legit) to win the cash prize. “The Mole”, is a smart attempt at this (even though the Netflix rule of “cliffhanger them to the next episode” will do the opposite to most audiences)
You can’t do “the same shit over and over” on Netflix, even though on a game show, you can kind of get away with that. It’s kind of expected. Squid Game : The Challenge isn’t playing Glass Bridge every episode. You only get to see it once. Competition shows however, do have a fault of their own, and that is simply - being unable to “find their voice”. Any watch of “Survivor” and its challenges are essentially some variant of a relay race, or some endurance challenge. That’s it. Big Brother, the set dressing makes the games look like Mario Party. But when you get into the world of “MTV’s The Challenge”, the games might be exactly the same on the other two (standing on a log, standing on a cylander that looks like cake) but now its “standing on a log” with this futuristic lighting effect. But it’s all standing on a log.
A big problem with reality comps on Netflix, is the way most watch is “See the first episode to know the contestants” and “see the final episode to see who won” and if you can be bothered, maybe watch the in-between parts. Netflix trying to “delay” this by having the batch method (3 episodes, this week, 3 episodes next week, 2 episode final) works - if the series itself has an audience chatting about it socially. and it needs that cliffhanger approach.
A classic game show simply can’t work in this kind of condition on Netflix.
HOW CAN A STUDIO GAME SHOW WORK?
For starters, a studio game show to work will need to have a ton of variety in the games, or, if it really has to, needs to be one singular game stretched out for the season.
Unfortunately, a Netflix binge isn't going to allow you playing a game of jeopardy, even if the categories are different.
While it's quick and easy to just say “hey reboot duel” - again, that's a watch the first, watch the last and move on format. And it's not as easy as taking tropes of reality television and have an elimination every week (because again, it is first and last). You can't just “forged in fire”/”is it cake” your way through a series. Otherwise, having a “trivia show where one gets eliminated every week until one is left” would just be easy to accomplish.
For me, the approach needs to be “something different every episode, but similar enough to keep people watching”
For instance, a game show that is a trivia game with a Netflix Show as the theme (contestant+ actor vs contestant + actor) and it's a special game where it starts as like, Stranger Things or One Piece trivia, and then gets more and more obscure. Much like “my next guest needs no introduction”, if you're a fan of the special guests, you'll go watch. And then you could sprinkle them every month or so, or a limited run of 4 episodes. It's probably the only way you could do trivia.
Alternatively, you could always do something trendy, like an escape room, but then every episode is a new location. One is a prison, one is a cafeteria, and go from there. (This has been tried a few times, Race to Escape and The Great Escape and “Escape! With Janet Varney) but with a sleek Netflix budget and the escape room element still around. It could be interesting to see a big twist on the idea.
And of course, one extra element, which is what I call the risky option - you gotta make a storyline. People have tried to blend a scripted show with unscripted. Burt Ludfin’s Love Buffet, for instance, you could try and build a storyline of the series from beginning of the series until the end. This could mean something like there is a “villain” that must be stopped, a “hero” that's the host that goes through a B-story interwoven with the challenges and games.
Essentially, Whodunnit on ABC was way ahead of the curve with this, with contestants acting out their murders and then the next episode, being about it. Cliffhangers are important on this kind of idea.
WHAT ARE SOME WAYS THIS COULD WORK?
Instead of just throwing my formats out there, I'm going to just list a whole list of shows that Netflix can try and bring back or borrow or use to try and get the fix.
Ultra Quiz - it wasn't really in studio, but it is probably the most ambitious game show ever devised, in a battle royale format, mixed with 101 ways to leave a game show, contestants will fly to a location, there will be a quiz about the location, and those that didn't perform the best got eliminated. It's a format that has a new location every week, a la Amazing Race, it still has a quiz element and you can easily build a cliffhanger, to do your 3-3-2 upload towards. One episode might have a quiz about UK prime Ministers with 30 people going to 10, another could have a Japanese game show inspired elimination quiz in Tokyo. It's all possible.
Solitary - The “Endurance” contest is a staple of reality TV, the cruelty people go through is still a thing people watch. The isolation that comes from Love is Blind and The Circle, mean that “pods are in”, and if you ask me, Solitary is still a game show ahead of it's time, as players weren't going against each other, but against themselves. In a series of painful, silly, and bizarre games until somebody quits the game. It's the one game show from the 2000s that I am still surprised didn't get rebooted in the days of man vs machine, with AI and the rise of Siri and Alexa, when there is VAL!
Release the Hounds - I love genre benders, and Release the Hounds was this really creepy horror themed game show where contestants would go through a challenge, but then one by one, one would need to leave to try and bank the cash in a race against attack dogs to keep the money. Hellevator also tried to accomplish this, but had a comedy commentary with the Terror Twins, but if you want to sell a game show, you need to make the essence of a game show, but looking exactly like a horror movie (note: it could be sci-fi, western, etc. but the less it looks like a studio audience clapping, the better)
Armchair Detectives - Again, a nice genre bend, this was a cute show where crime enthusiasts would watch a Midsommer Murders type show and try and guess who the killer was. So you got a best of both worlds situation
Game Changer - Dropout’s biggest hit has made a few spinoff series off it. But the reason it was such a success, something new every episode. (Except the times when they played it again)
Run For the Money - this is a cop out because Run For The Money is already on Netflix, and had a short run, but the fast-paced drama made it such a breeze to sit through, that one could, IN THEORY, record 4 or 5 seasons of that show in a few weeks, and have a few years of content, if one would choose.
Hollywood Game Night - going back to “trivia”, Hollywood Game Night was a game show, but wasn't shy of the plug, the games were fun enough, but, for a Netflix version, it would need to be less, much much less. You're still there to watch the celebrities, but there are super fans there as well. It's the cheapest thing one could do.
Whodunnit - As explained earlier, had a genre bend, but had the cliffhangers every episode, making it such an addictive series to watch. If you were to do the watch the first, watch the last, you would be hopelessly lost and miss out on the key parts of the series, much like finding out The Mole, it's nice, but that's not “the show” as much as the journey.
Lost - It was a reality show that was forgotten about because of 9/11. but the game was quite simple - figure out where you were, and get home the fastest. As shows like Destination X are Popping Up in the rounds, and travel shows are making a comeback, spinning this series into less “I need money to get home” and more of a “escape room with a country” would be a very fun series to attempt.
Studio 7 - while it's easy to say world series of pop culture, or a mastermind type series, studio 7 was very ambitious as it was a reality show and a game show at the same time. 7 contestants would get books and get quizzed about current events, to win $77,777 with the winners of each playing the final for $777,777. This had current events of the week as a category, but also had pop culture questions, had a “trust” element. And was very intriguing. Would a Studio 7 work as a weekly series? Who knows, but it's innovation is where it might work.
Netflix is great for it's bingable formats so unfortunately shows that are making the rounds in the game show circles, Classic Concentration, Scrabble, Shop Til You Drop and Tic Tac Dough, while all fantastic formats, are probably best used not as a “Netflix” series, but as a 40-100 episode pick up that ends up uploaded to a Pluto TV or a FreeVee fast channel with all the advertising in the world to cover some to all of the costs. It simply wouldn't work on Netflix, because of the routine and the repetition of these games that audience would just steer away from. Why watch 3 or 4 episodes of “memory match” or “find the word” when you have Scott Pilgrim Takes Off to watch.
Netflix is great at taking calculated risks, and bringing fun and interesting ideas to the globe. It's fun watching The Devil's Plan, it's great seeing British Bake Off, and all they need is some version of Taskmaster or their LOL: Last One Laughing to get the hook in.
It's possible, but for now it's time to watch the three hundred and eighteenth stand up comedy special where they bring up “being cancelled” for being an irredeemable piece of shit
TTYS, TADUM.
