Wipeout (2008 U.S. game show)

Wipeout
Also known as	Winter Wipeout Spring Wipeout Summer Wipeout Total Wipeout USA
Genre	Sports Entertainment Comedy
Created by	Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen
Directed by	J. Rupert Thompson
Presented by	John Anderson John Henson Jill Wagner Vanessa Lachey
Composer(s)	Vanacore Music (Theme Song & Underscore)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	130
Production
Executive producer(s)	Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen
Producer(s)	Heather Finnegan Sean Jennings Eric Timm
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Endemol Shine Group Lock and Key Productions Pulse Creative
Distributor	Endemol Shine Group Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV) (2008) 720p (16:9 HDTV) (2009–2014)
Original release	June 24, 2008 (2008-06-24) – September 7, 2014 (2014-09-07)[1]

Wipeout is an American game show series in which contestants competed in what was billed as the "World's Largest" obstacle course. Wipeout was hosted and commentated by John Henson and John Anderson, while Jill Wagner acted as the "on-location" reporter. The show aired on ABC from June 24, 2008 until the show aired its final episode on September 7, 2014. The interim host for one season was Vanessa Lachey. The creators and executive producers are Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen. Distribution of the show was handled by Endemol USA. The show was taped at Sable Ranch in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita, California, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles.^[2]

History

Wipeout title card used from 2008-2010. The logo can still be seen around the course.

The series premiered on June 24, 2008, on ABC. After his pilot was shot, co-host Elon Gold was replaced. Producers called in Michael Glazer to find a "comic host replacement" that eventually went to John Henson. The first season's success spawned a series of international versions of Wipeout, debuting in countries including the United Kingdom and Argentina in January 2009.

On December 8, 2008, ABC announced plans to counter-program NBC's Super Bowl game-day telecasts with a sports-star-studded episode of Wipeout, entitled "Wipeout Bowl". The episode was broadcast immediately following the game. The episode featured female cheerleaders competing against male "couch potato" sports fans.^[3] During the hour-long special, Monica Kauffman became the show's first female competitor to win. Following the episode, an announcement was made that a second season had been commissioned, and a promo for the season was subsequently broadcast.

The second season was broadcast during the summer of 2009. According to TV Week, in 2009 Wipeout became the third most popular game show in the world, based on ratings.^[4] On July 22, 2009, Wipeout was renewed for a third season, for which filming began in September 2009.

The third season of the show premiered on June 22, 2010, with a special two-hour "Blind Date" episode preluding the series on June 1.^[5][6] ABC subsequently announced that other themed episodes would appear in Season 3, including episodes featuring ladies only and families.^[5] The third-season finale aired on September 14, 2010, with a special "America's Finest Edition", featuring some of America's heroes, including firefighters and policemen.

Co-creator and executive producer Matt Kunitz on the Wipeout Zone part of the course in 2010

On August 15, 2010, ABC announced that the show had been contracted for a fourth season.^[7] The announcement added: "Wipeout has the distinction of being the only broadcast reality series launched in recent years that has demonstrated proven staying power." On October 13, 2010, ABC announced plans that the fourth season would be split into three sections – Winter, Spring, and Summer; with a total of 32 episodes: 8 Winter episodes, 7 Spring episodes and 17 Summer episodes.^[8] The fourth season premiered on January 6, 2011.^[9]

On June 16, 2011, ABC announced that the show had been renewed for a fifth season, and that Vanessa Lachey would replace co-host Jill Wagner on the show. New episodes of Winter Wipeout began on December 8, 2011, with a Christmas special episode, entitled Winter Wipeout: Deck the Balls. That same year, Syndicated reruns of Wipeout aired on truTV and TBS.^[10]

On August 29, 2012, Wipeout was picked up for a sixth season. In addition, it was announced that former co-host Jill Wagner would be returning to the series after a season-long absence.^[11] John Anderson and John Henson also returned as hosts.

On August 30, 2012, Activision released a Wipeout game for iOS. It quickly became the top-selling app in the App Store.^[12]

On May 9, 2013, season six premiered. In its sixth season, Wipeout celebrated its 100th episode.^[13]

On January 22, 2014, Wipeout was renewed for a seventh season. For the first time, winners from each episode were brought together for a "Tournament of Champions" at the end of the season to compete for the title of Ultimate Wipeout Champion.^[14]

On June 22, 2014, the seventh season began, with new episodes airing on Sundays. Season seven ended on September 7, 2014.

Wipeout appeared to have been renewed for an eighth season in a new version named Wipeout Extreme; however, by the summer of 2015, ABC had quietly canceled the show and removed it from the ABC website.^[15][16]

Wipeout returns to syndicated reruns starting in the Fall 2018-2019 season, this time to local stations.

Gameplay

The Wipeout set at Sable Ranch, as seen in 2014

Contestants compete through four rounds of competition until a final winner is chosen. The first round features 24 contestants (they were introduced from seasons 1-3, but from season 4 onwards, not all were shown) running through a series of obstacles. The top 12 finishing times move on. The show never made clear to viewers whether or how the finishing times are adjusted for failing to complete obstacles along the way.

The next two rounds take place on two different complex obstacles. They typically involve large structures that competitors have to enter, navigate around while hostile devices try to knock them off, and then jump to a landing pad to finish, where Jill Wagner awaits them. The competitors keep trying on these structures until roughly half of them have reached the finish; the other half are eliminated. This leaves only the top four (top three in some seasons) to make it to the final round called the Wipeout Zone, where the winner earns the title of Wipeout Champion and a $50,000 grand prize.

The challenges change each week, but always feature offbeat and comical obstacles, such as the "Sucker Punch", "Big Balls" (the show's trademark obstacle, four very large red spheres in sequence that must be traversed from a running start, with failures often resulting in odd-angle rejections), the "Sweeper", the "Dizzy Dummy" or the "Dreadmill". Emphasis is always placed on obstacles that can produce sudden jarring collisions (the obstacle surfaces are heavily padded and competitors sometimes don helmets or flak jackets) followed by spectacular falls into the water below, these being the show's titular "wipeouts". As part of wiping out, the competitors often end up covered in mud, froth, vats of food, or other unlikely substances.

In one of the show's trademarks, the commentators have a humorous running commentary, often mocking and insulting the contestants as they compete. The hosts make frequent use of puns. Jokey sound effects and cheesy visual effects are often added as well. The exchanges between the two hosts is often a subplot of episodes themselves, with Anderson playing it mostly straight as a play-by-play man while Henson offers up off-the-wall inanities and non sequiturs as color commentary. Jill Wagner offers additional features reactions, and also provides interviews with the contestants filmed before their turn begins. These interviews tend to emphasize bizarre aspects of contestants' personalities, with Wagner making facial commentary as the conversation proceeds. Generally only those who will pass the first round are introduced, and a nickname is assigned that is used throughout the game.

At night, the show takes an epic and serious turn, with the humor dialed down, and serious background music instead of its lighthearted theme music. The final four or three contestants play separately on a large obstacle course inside the studio called the Wipeout Zone, each attempting to finish the course in the fastest time, much like the first round. Though slight variations are used in each episode, contestants wear wetsuits and they begin by either sliding down a water ramp or being launched by a giant catapult or blob into the course, swimming to the first obstacle. Obstacles have varied between episodes, but the course contains several obstacles that must be traversed in order to reach the finishing platform. Some obstacles can be skipped for a time penalty, but the last obstacle(s) has to be completed in order to reach the finishing spot. The player with the fastest time on the course is declared the "champion" of the episode and is awarded the show's grand prize of $50,000. The Wipeout Zone often brings competitors to the brink of exhaustion, especially when they have to swim back to a starting point to retry a failed obstacle.

Episodes

Reception

The storage area of the Wipeout set at Sable Ranch, as seen in 2013

On its premiere night, Wipeout scored the highest premiere rating of any new show in summer 2008, besting competing veteran summer shows Hell's Kitchen and America's Got Talent.^[17] As the season progressed, Nielsen Media Research put it at the top of the 18-49 demographic, slightly outpaced by America's Got Talent. On August 6, 2008, Wipeout was officially renewed for a second season.^[18] The second season premiered on May 27, 2009, and with an audience of 9.69 million, Wipeout bested its first season average and gave ABC its best numbers in the Wednesday 8:00 p.m. slot since November 2007.^[19] The third season premiered on June 22, 2010, with ratings of 10.21 million,^[20] with a special "Blind Date" episode getting 12.8 million viewers on June 1, 2010.^[21] In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that Wipeout was "most popular in Northern, rural areas with a large percentage of white people: Idaho, Utah, Wisconsin and Maine are all on the top of this show's list".^[22]

On January 6, 2011, the first season of Winter Wipeout premiered with the series' highest ratings ever, beating the 8pm competition in the coveted 18-49 demographic and many other key demos.^[23]

Awards and nominations

Notes

Lawsuit

The concept and style of the show has been compared to several Japanese game shows, most notably Unbeatable Banzuke and Takeshi's Castle.^[34][35] This was brought to the attention of the Japanese broadcaster Tokyo Broadcasting System, who filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against ABC, charging that Wipeout is "a blatant copycat" of several of its classic Japanese competition game shows. Among the charges are that ABC bought search terms such as MXC (the Americanized comedy version of Takeshi's Castle) on Google to help drive traffic to the official Wipeout page, and that specific obstacles in Wipeout were knock-offs of challenges in those Japanese game shows.

Wipeout creator and executive producer Matt Kunitz, who also executive produced Endemol's Fear Factor (NBC), said Wipeout is "90% Fear Factor-inspired, 10% Japanese game show", adding in a Los Angeles Times interview that Wipeout was born from a desire to do a funny stunt series. He reportedly wanted to sell the show as Fear Factor meets America's Funniest Home Videos.^[36] The suit was settled in December 2011 through mediation with a federal judge without going to trial.^[37]

Wipeout: The Game

Wipeout has also been adapted into a video game, Wipeout: The Game, which was released June 22, 2010, along with the Season 3 premiere.^[38] The game was released on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and was developed by Activision. In the game, the player can choose from 23 different characters. There are four categories of characters, with each category having a certain amount of "Speed" and "Strength" for the player, which varies based on their body sizes. The "Small" characters have great Speed but little Strength. The "Medium" characters have a more balanced amount of Speed and Strength, with neither one serving as the dominant trait. And the "Large" characters have great Strength but little Speed. These first three categories all have 6 different characters each; 3 females and 3 males, and each character having 3 different outfits. The fourth category is "Special," which has a high amount of Speed and Strength. There are 5 characters in this category, including the three hosts. The game is played in two different versions. Challenge mode is where the player can challenge specific obstacles and attempt to beat them in a certain amount of time. The other is Play The Show, which means to play the game as they would in the show. They go through the Qualifier round first, and advance to the Sweeper round second. The third round, Free For All, has 3 different versions. In the Easy level, the Free For All features players spinning on the dizzy dummy, and then going across the Tipsy Tables or the Spinning Platform. Challenging level has players on the Unclaimed Baggage, and the Extreme level has them on the Double Crosser. Finally, they go through the Wipeout Zone. The Wii game is different from the show (and its Nintendo DS counterpart) in that there are only 4 contestants, and none are eliminated during the first three rounds. The game has commentary by Henson, Anderson and Wagner, all three of whom are featured as unlockable playable characters.^[39]

Another Wipeout game was under development by Activision, this time for Xbox 360 with Kinect, entitled 'Wipeout: In The Zone'. It took full advantage of the Kinect remote and has ragdoll wipeouts and different rounds from the Wii and DS version, such as Bruiseball. The game was released "in conjunction with the premier of Wipeout's summer season on ABC"^[40] on June 16, 2011.^[41] Activision announced on August 18, 2011 that a direct sequel to the first Wipeout game was in development titled Wipeout 2^[42] for Xbox 360 with Kinect, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. The new game is described as "Offering updated, outrageous course designs across all platforms with obstacles and effects taken straight from the show's summer and winter seasons. Players must navigate around snow, ice, foam, and fan-favorite obstacles like the Sucker Punch Wall and Big Balls; which are making their triumphant returns alongside more than 50 others".

It was released on October 11, 2011.^[43] Activision announced on June 25, 2013 that a new title called Wipeout: Create & Crash would be released on Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS on October 15, 2013.^[44]

International versions outside the U.S.

Endemol USA has sold the "Wipeout" format to more than 40 territories and has created two obstacle courses in Argentina for those international editions.^[18] Past, current and upcoming versions include:

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Premiere
Arab World	وايب أوت Wipeout	Mustafa Alagha, Tamer Abd El-Monem, Karen Derkalostian	MBC 1[45]	May 2009
Argentina	Hombre al agua	Sebastián Weinbaum and Eugenio Weinbaum (Season 1, 3), Ivan de Pineda and Luli Fernendez (Season 2)	Canal 13	January 5, 2009
Australia	Wipeout Australia	Kelly Landry, James Brayshaw and Josh Lawson	Nine Network/Go![46]	3 February 2009 – 24 March 2009
Belarus	Зачистка Zachistka	Alexandra Pavlova and Ivan Vabishevich	ONT	Launch in 2011
Belgium	Wipeout	Walter Grootaers, Bob Peeters & Lynn Pelgroms (& Wytske Kenemans)	VTM[47]	March 4, 2009
Brazil	Maratoma	Fausto Silva	Rede Globo[48]	July 19, 2009
Canada	Wipeout Québec	Valérie Simard, Alain Dumas and Réal Béland	V	August 31, 2009
	Wipeout Canada	Jonathan Torrens, Enis Esmer, Jessica Phillips[49]	TVtropolis	April 3, 2011 – June 26, 2011
Chile	Hombre Al Agua	Martín Cárcamo and Álvaro Salas	TVN	March 6, 2009
Colombia	Hombre Al Agua	Pirry and Andrea Serna	RCN TV	December 2011
Croatia	Wipeout	Marina Jerkovic	RTL Televizija	April 12, 2009
Czech Republic	Wipeout - Souboj národů	Libor Bouček, Janka Hospodárová	Nova	June 29, 2011
Denmark	Wipeout	Uffe Holm, Martin Veltz and Anne Kejser	Kanal 5	March 5, 2009
Finland	Wipeout Suomi	Anna Easteden	Fox	2013
France	Total Wipeout	Stéphane Rotenberg, Alex Goude, Sandrine Corman	M6[50][51]	July 17, 2009
Germany	WipeOut – Heul nicht, lauf!	Charlotte Engelhardt, Matthias Opdenhövel and Werner Hansch	ProSieben[52]	March 10, 2009
Greece	Wipeout	Christoforos Zaralikos, Dimitris Menounos, Eleni Karpontini (season 1), Giorgos Lianos (season 2)	ANT1	February 6, 2010
Iceland	Wipeout Ísland	Sigmar Vilhjálmsson, Jóhannes Ásbjörnsson and Friðrika Hjördís Geirsdóttir	Stöð 2[53]	December 11, 2009
India	Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout	Shahrukh Khan and Saumya Tandon[54]	Imagine TV	February 1, 2011 – February 25, 2011
Italy	Wipeout - Pronti a tutto!	Lillo e Greg	K2	3 October 2010
Kazakhstan			Channel 7 [55]	March 9, 2013
Israel	וויפאאוט ישראל Wipeout Israel	Tal Berman and Aviad Kisos	Channel 10[56]	May 10, 2011
Mexico	Resbalón	José Ramón San Cristóbal, Eduardo Videgaray	Televisa[57]	August 29, 2009
Japan	ワイプアウト日本 (Nippon's Wipeout)	TBA	Fuji TV	March 24, 2013
Lithuania	Jokių kliūčių!	Džiugas Siaurusaitis	TV3	January 10, 2009
Mozambique	O Gram Caida	Noel Serra, Cristian Aureliano Maranhao	Promomedios Televisor	September 12, 2010
Netherlands	Wipeout	Wytske Kenemans, Dennis Weening, Klaas van der Eerden, Lynn Pelgroms	RTL 5[58][59]	February 15, 2009
Norway	Wipeout	Anders Hoff,Øyvind Rafto, Synnøve Skarbø	TVNorge	March 2, 2009[60]
Pakistan	Wipeout Pakistan also known as Big Splash		Geo TV
Philippines	Wipeout Matira, Matibay	Paolo Contis, Vince De Hesus	GMA Network	March 15, 2010
Poland	Wipeout – Wymiatacze	Tomasz Zimoch, Krzysztof 'Jankes' Jankowski, Katarzyna Olubińska	TVN	February 13, 2011
Russia	Жестокие игры Zhestokiye Igry	Dmitry Dibrov, Kirill Nabutov, Yana Churikova	Channel One[61]	7 March 2010
	Навылет Navylet	Danila Dunayev, Natali Nevedrova, Vladimir Strozhuk	Yu	September 7, 2013
Serbia	Wipeout	Ivan Tešanović and Miljan Milićević	FOX Televizija	November 8, 2009
Spain	¡Wipeout!	Carmen Alcayde	Telecinco[62]	December 24, 2008
Slovakia	Wipeout - Súboj národov	Janka Hospodárová, Libor Bouček	Markíza	July 3, 2011
Slovenia	Wipeout	Jernej Kuntner and Tomaž Cuder	TV 3	Slovenian voice-over of the American version since season 3
Sweden	Wipeout	Felix Herngren, Hans Wiklund, Sofia Wistam	Kanal 5 (in Swedish)	March 8, 2009
Turkey	Wipeout	Asuman Krause	Show TV[63]	January 30, 2008
Ukraine	БУМ, Битва українських міст BUM, Bytva Ukrayinskyh Mist	Stepan Kazanin, Valeria Ushakova, Alexander Krikun	Inter TV	March 7, 2010
	Замочені	Ehor Krutoholov, Oleksandr Berezhok	ICTV	June 16, 2013
United Kingdom	Total Wipeout	Richard Hammond[64] and Amanda Byram	BBC One, BBC Three, CBBC[65]	3 January 2009 – 31 December 2012

Notes:

• In Canada, the original United States series airs on Global for the first 5 seasons where City aired the 6th; the French-Canadian television V also aired the United States series but dubbed in French. The original United States series also airs in the UK on Challenge (as Total Wipeout USA), in New Zealand on Comedy Central, in Australia on Nine Network; in the Philippines and India on AXN and also on Comedy Central in India, in the Netherlands on RTL 5, and in Hong Kong on TVB Pearl.^[66] It is also broadcast in Ireland by TG4 with an Irish language voiceover.
• The Scandinavian countries Denmark, Norway, and Sweden produce separate versions of the show based on the same footage of contestants from the three countries competing against each other.
• The Dutch version is a collaboration between the Netherlands and Belgium.
• The American, British, Canadian and Australian versions are broadcast in Portugal on FX and also the Spanish and argentinian versions and a rerun of the first season in Portuguese on +tvi.
• The Italian version is made from the USA show, with the original audio still audible; some episodes are taken from the UK version, Total Wipeout.

See also

• American Gladiators (1989–1996)
• American Gladiators (2008)
• American Ninja Warrior
• Dog Eat Dog (UK)
• Dog Eat Dog (U.S.)
• Fear Factor
• I Survived a Japanese Game Show
• Brain Wall
• MXC/Takeshi's Castle
• Real World/Road Rules Challenge
• Sasuke (origins of Ninja Warrior)
• Jeux Sans Frontieres
• 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show
• Fort Boyard
• Splatalot!
• Total Wipeout
• Kinniku Banzuke

References

Further reading

• Stelter, Brian (July 21, 2009). "Gluttons for Punishment Are Balm for ABC". The New York Times.
• Lang, Derrik J (May 26, 2009). "'Wipeout' harder, much harder, than it looks on TV". Associated Press via Pantagraph.com.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wipeout (U.S. sports TV).

• Official website
• Wipeout on Facebook
• Wipeout on IMDb
• Filming location: 34°22′34″N 118°24′41″W / 34.3761°N 118.4113°W / 34.3761; -118.4113 (Wipeout (U.S. game show))Coordinates: 34°22′34″N 118°24′41″W / 34.3761°N 118.4113°W / 34.3761; -118.4113 (Wipeout (U.S. game show))