Who Dares Wins is back?

[cmjb13]

According to tvgameshows.net

GSN is pulling Who Dares Wins, the Australian Fear Factor-style game, out of the mothballs to replace Funny Money Wednesdays at 11:30 p.m. (ET)

[WhammyPower]

Now that is just stupid.  What idiots would put a show like that on the schedule?




Oh, wait....

[CaseyAbell]

Funny Money isn't even on the current schedule at the GSN site. Wednesday 11:30 PM is a double run of Spy TV according to the sched.

Really, I'm amazed that Funny Money was ever considered for a comeback. The show was a real clunker that helped create GSN's ratings disaster of late last summer. If the show could have booked consistently good comics, it might have had a chance. But too many comics bombed and took the show with them, because there was no strong gameplay to pick up the slack.

Don't know much about Who Dares Wins, except from the show's web site. It lasted for a few years on Seven, one of Australia's main networks, and was exported to a few other countries. Hard to see how it could be worse than Funny Money.

EDIT: Did some googling and found out that Who Dares Wins apparently had a brief run on GSN several years ago. Don't remember it, but there was a spell when I didn't have access to GSN on my cable provider.

[JerrysFeudinAgain]

Who Dares Wins was on GSN during the Fall of 2001. I still remember those ads that GSN run to the ground with it's "new" shows PYL,LMAD and $1.98 Beauty Show at the time.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 08:39 AM\']Don't know much about Who Dares Wins, except from the show's web site. It lasted for a few years on Seven, one of Australia's main networks, and was exported to a few other countries. Hard to see how it could be worse than Funny Money.

EDIT: Did some googling and found out that Who Dares Wins apparently had a brief run on GSN several years ago. Don't remember it, but there was a spell when I didn't have access to GSN on my cable provider.[/quote]
Actually, I was one of the few people who liked the show when it was on the first time.  It's a much gentler show than "Fear Factor" and is actually more like "Truth or Consequences" done on location.

Most of the show is Mike the host, whose last name I've forgotten, challenging people to do various little stunts on the street or in malls for a modest little cash prize.  Some of it is eating gross food like "Fear Factor," but the examples they've done were nowhere near as gross as that show--and the host had a much more light-hearted attitude about the thing than Joe Rogan.

On each show, there is a major stunt, where viewers send in people who they would like to see get dared.  Mike shows up at their home or workplace with a camera crew and tells the mark that they are to receive the dare and then hands them off to his lovely assistant at the location of the stunt.  The stunts were often spectacular ones similar to "Fear Factor," but often were things like singing the Australian national anthem at a rugby game or performing in a male strip show or participating in a demolition derby (given to a ascerbic radio talk show host).  If they complete the stunt, they win a trip.  They are fully trained and briefed by the stunt coordinators, but they have the choice to walk away at any time.  If they at any point turn down the stunt, Mike's lovely assistant then has to perform the stunt--if she does it, they still win the trip, I believe.  If *she* turns it down, then the show's chief stunt coordinator has to perform it.

They also in some shows do a stunt that isn't as major or complicated for an A$500 cash prize, where Mike's lovely assistant (sorry I can't remember her name) picks someone off the street to attempt it.

Maybe not intellectual, but I always found it more fun than "Fear Factor"--and with contestants of all ages.

[cmjb13]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 06:38 PM\'] Most of the show is Mike the host, whose last name I've forgotten [/quote]
 Mike Whitney

[PeterMarshallFan]

[quote name=\'cmjb13\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 08:46 PM\'] [quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 06:38 PM\'] Most of the show is Mike the host, whose last name I've forgotten [/quote]
Mike Whitney [/quote]
 The first time I saw him, I thought he seemed like Bert Convy with an Australian accent.

[Thad Dixon]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 06:38 PM\']If they at any point turn down the stunt, Mike's lovely assistant then has to perform the stunt--if she does it, they still win the trip, I believe.[/quote]
No, actually, if the person getting dared turns it down, and the assistant does it, they do not get the trip;  however, if they both turn it down, then the person who got dared still wins the trip.  I saw the show when it was on GSN in Fall 2001, and I very distinctly remember them saying that.

[beatlefreak84]

If they at any point turn down the stunt, Mike's lovely assistant then has to perform the stunt--if she does it, they still win the trip, I believe. If *she* turns it down, then the show's chief stunt coordinator has to perform it.

You're close.  If the show's lovely assistant turns DOWN the stunt, then the contestant wins the trip and the stunt coordinator does it just to show that it can be done.  The contestant loses the trip if she accepts the dare AND completes it.

I remember the stunt coordinator doing it only once, and that was with a stunt involving wading across a stream with crocodiles in it; both the contestant and the assistant (I believe her name was Jennifer) turned it down and Mike had to go into a semi-detailed explanation about how, even though the contestant turned down the dare, since the assistant did as well, then he still wins the trip.

Anthony

[Chelsea Thrasher]

Let's just chart this out:

Contestant Accepts Stunt - Contestant Completes Stunt - Contestant Wins Trip
Contestant Accepts Stunt - Contestant Fails Stunt - No Win
Contestant Rejects Stunt - Tania (The Assistant) Completes Stunt - No Win
Contestant Rejects Stunt - Tania Fails Stunt - Contestant Wins Trip
Contestant Rejects Stunt - Tania Rejects Stunt (Only happened once) - Stunt Coordinator Performs Stunt (Contestant Wins Regardless.

[inturnaround]

[quote name=\'Seth Thrasher\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 11:00 PM\'] Let's just chart this out:

 [/quote]
 <snip>

Yeah, my brain always tells me something's wrong when you have to go to a flowchart to explain a game show.

[catnap1972]

To set the record straight, the "lovely assistant" was Tania Zaetta.

[passwordplus]

It must have been somewhat of a hit, I remember them doing a marathon on WDW around Halloween 2001

[TravisP]

[quote name=\'WhammyPower\' date=\'Mar 23 2004, 07:57 AM\'] Now that is just stupid.  What idiots would put a show like that on the schedule? [/quote]
 Challenge in the UK also has got the episodes for a while now, they showed them last year in the afternoon slot. Recently they were showing Triple-Bills of them every day at 3am back in January just to fill in a gap, since they aren't bothered what to show in the early hours of the morning.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'passwordplus\' date=\'Mar 24 2004, 01:43 PM\']It must have been somewhat of a hit, I remember them doing a marathon on WDW around Halloween 2001[/quote]
It was more of a stunt to publicize the show than anything else.

Obviously, it's been sitting around for two years unaired, since it was listed in the FOF ballot for both 2002 and 2003.  Don't believe all 119 episodes were aired--and I wonder if the contract is about to run out?

I would also be curious if the original contract to air the show in the U.S. contained an option for GSN to produce an American version of the series, which was obviously not exercised.