Wipeout: This isn’t the late 80’s syndicated show hosted by Peter Tomarken. It’s much, much different.
For anyone who’s seen Spike TV’s Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (a.k.a. Takeshi’s Castle from Japan), Wipeout is pretty much exactly like MxC, except American. Every event involves a pool and contestants falling in said pool. The draw of the show is pretty much the same as MxC; people falling into water and getting hit in uncomfortable places is a never ending source of entertainment. The commentators (ESPN’s John Anderson and Talk Soup’s John Henson) use the same comedic style of ridiculing contestants that Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship do. Recommended if you like MxC.
I Survived a Japanese Gameshow!: I thought this show was going to be standalone episodes, but it’s actually an episodic, reality-style game show (a la Survivor, Amazing Race, etc.) The format is disappointingly formulaic; 2 teams compete on Majide, a Japanese game show (created just for ISaJG? Not sure.) and play in a Japanese-gameshow-type challenge (in the first episode, the challenge was for one team member to eat ball-shaped Japanese food (if I was taking notes, I’d say specifically what food it was) delivered to them on pans attached to other team member’s hats. The players wearing the hats, however, have to run down a treadmill to get to the ball eater. And the ball eater can’t use his hands. And once the eater gets the ball in his mouth, he hits a button to signal the runner that he/she has to fall, taking him/her down the treadmill into a sand pit. Get all that?). The losing must complete a punishment while the winning team gets a reward (Hell’s Kitchen wants their format back). and afterwards, the losing team nominates two people within their team (Hell’s Kitchen called again, it’s still kinda pissed) to play in an elimination game where the loser leaves the game. Also shown are the contestant’s living space and their apartment… manager (?) Mama-san. She bosses them around, telling them about the “no-shoes-in-the-house” rule prevalent in Japan, among other things.
I don’t see this series lasting a season. The only thing that sets this show apart from others is the Japanese elements. Not recommended for casual viewers.
