Is the idea of having people compete for life changing/saving amounts of money, then have it crash down on their head for our amusement, something that should end for you?

Mr. Beast of course does things like “Stay in this room for 100 days to win a million dollars” but he is mostly just turning an old format into internet. Biggest Loser of course made dozens of people drastically change their bodies in irreversible ways, just to give one of them money. Survivor once again has people compete for months in brutal fashion with only one walking away with a prize. Mr. Beast is more or less just stealing Big Brother whole sale for most of his contest videos, but making them click bait.

Then of course we have things like Deal or No deal, which is mostly just offering people a hope of a life changing amount of money, then the chance for a better life vanish before them case by case. It still seems a lot less brutal than the other three, but still rather dark when you realize we are watching someone be given the hope to get out of debt and buy a house have it taken from them case by case.

Try not to focus on Mr. Beast too much since everyone is talking about him, he’s just the latest example of giant game show so felt like I need to mention him. I’m mostly curious how you all feel about large cash prize game shows in general!

(I do love game shows with bs prizes. Bring on Task Master! Win that golden head so you can put it in your garage to be stolen by another contestant! Also Game Changer, go watch game changer. They all get paid regardless of if they win or not and every episode is super creative.)

  • Call me Lenny/Leni
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    1 month ago

    Contests in of themselves are fine, but when there are stakes that are won regardless of anyone’s control, we may as well be speaking of the act of gifting.