Wipeout (2008 U.S. game show)

Wipeout
Also known as	Winter Wipeout Spring Wipeout Summer Wipeout
Genre	Sports Entertainment Comedy
Created by	Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen
Directed by	J. Rupert Thompson
Presented by	John Anderson (2008–2014) John Henson (2008–2014) Jill Wagner (2008–2011, 2013–2014) Vanessa Lachey (2011–2012)
Composer(s)	Vanacore Music (Theme Song & Underscore)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	148
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 USA Lock and Key Productions Pulse Creative
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 a game show series in which contestants compete in what was billed as the "world's largest obstacle course". Wipeout is hosted and commentated by John Henson and John Anderson, while Jill Wagner acts as the "on-location" presenter. The show aired on ABC from June 24, 2008 to September 7, 2014. The interim presenter for one season was Vanessa Lachey. The creators and executive producers are Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen. Distribution of the show is 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.

Wipeout is similar to Takeshi's Castle, 1986 to 1990, Tokyo Japan TV game show , a competition featuring obstacle courses.

The series premiered on June 24, 2008, on ABC. After the 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.

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 returning as hosts.

On August 30, 2012, Activision released the mobile App 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 will be 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]

Awards and nominations

Episodes

Reception

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.^[27] 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.^[28] 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 8:00pm slot since November 2007.^[29] The third season premiered on June 22, 2010, with ratings of 10.21 million,^[30] with a special "Blind Date" episode getting 12.8 million viewers on June 1, 2010.^[31]

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.^[32]

Lawsuit

The concept and style of the show has been compared to several Japanese game shows, most notably Sasuke and Takeshi's Castle.^[33][34] 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.^[35] The suit was settled in December 2011 through mediation with a federal judge without going to trial.^[36]

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.^[37] 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 game is different from the show 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.^[38]

Another Wipeout game is under development by Activision, this time for Xbox 360 with Kinect, entitled 'Wipeout: In The Zone'. It will take 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"^[39] on June 16, 2011.^[40] Activision announced on August 18, 2011 that a direct sequel to the first Wipeout game was in development titled Wipeout 2^[41] 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.^[42] Activision announced on June 25, 2013 that a new title called Wipeout: Create & Crash will be released on Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS on October 15, 2013.^[43]

International versions

Endemol USA has sold the "Wipeout" format to more than 40 territories and has created two obstacle courses in Argentina for those international editions.^[28] Past, current and upcoming versions include:

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Premiere	Language
Arab World	وايب أوت Wipeout	Mustafa Alagha, Tamer Abd El-Monem, Karen Derkalostian	MBC 1[44]	May 2009	Arabic
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	Spanish
Australia	Wipeout Australia	Kelly Landry, James Brayshaw and Josh Lawson	Nine Network/Go![45]	3 February 2009 – 24 March 2009	English
Belarus	Зачистка Zachistka	Alexandra Pavlova and Ivan Vabishevich	ONT	Launch in 2011	Russian
Belgium	Wipeout	Walter Grootaers, Bob Peeters & Lynn Pelgroms (& Wytske Kenemans)	VTM[46]	March 4, 2009	Dutch
Brazil	Maratoma	Fausto Silva	Rede Globo[47]	July 19, 2009	Portuguese
Canada	Wipeout Québec	Valérie Simard, Alain Dumas and Réal Béland	V	August 31, 2009	French
	Wipeout Canada	Jonathan Torrens, Enis Esmer,Jessica Phillips[48]	TVtropolis	April 3, 2011 – June 26, 2011	English
Chile	Hombre Al Agua	Martín Cárcamo and Álvaro Salas	TVN	March 6, 2009	Spanish
Colombia	Hombre Al Agua	Pirry and Andrea Serna	RCN TV	December 2011	Spanish
Croatia	Wipeout	Marina Jerkovic	RTL Televizija	April 12, 2009.	Croatian
Czech Republic	Wipeout - Souboj národů	Libor Bouček, Janka Hospodárová	Nova	June 29, 2011	Czech
Denmark	Wipeout	Uffe Holm, Martin Veltz and Anne Kejser	Kanal 5	March 5, 2009	Danish
Finland	Wipeout Suomi	Anna Easteden	Fox	2013	Finnish
France	Total Wipeout	Stéphane Rotenberg, Alex Goude, Sandrine Corman	M6[49][50]	July 17, 2009	French
Germany	WipeOut – Heul nicht, lauf!	Charlotte Engelhardt, Matthias Opdenhövel and Werner Hansch	ProSieben[51]	March 10, 2009	German
Greece	Wipeout	Christoforos Zaralikos, Dimitris Menounos, Eleni Karpontini (season 1), Giorgos Lianos (season 2)	ANT1	February 6, 2010	Greek
Iceland	Wipeout Ísland	Sigmar Vilhjálmsson, Jóhannes Ásbjörnsson and Friðrika Hjördís Geirsdóttir	Stöð 2[52]	December 11, 2009	Icelandic
India	Zor Ka Jhatka: Total Wipeout	Shahrukh Khan and Saumya Tandon[53]	Imagine TV	February 1, 2011 – February 25, 2011	Hindi
Italy	Wipeout - Pronti a tutto!	Lillo e Greg	K2	3 October 2010	Italian
Kazakhstan			Channel 7 [54]	March 9, 2013	Kazakh
Israel	וויפאאוט ישראל Wipeout Israel	Tal Berman and Aviad Kisos	Channel 10[55]	May 10, 2011	Hebrew
Mexico	Resbalón	José Ramón San Cristóbal, Eduardo Videgaray	Televisa[56]	August 29, 2009	Spanish
Japan	ワイプアウト日本 (Nippon's Wipeout)	TBA	Fuji TV	March 24, 2013	Japanese
Lithuania	Jokių kliūčių!	Džiugas Siaurusaitis	TV3	January 10, 2009	Lithuanian
Mozambique	O Gram Caida	Noel Serra, Cristian Aureliano Maranhao	Promomedios Televisor	September 12, 2010	Portuguese
Netherlands	Wipeout	Wytske Kenemans, Dennis Weening, Klaas van der Eerden, Lynn Pelgroms	RTL 5[57][58]	February 15, 2009	Dutch
Norway	Wipeout	Anders Hoff,Øyvind Rafto, Synnøve Skarbø	TVNorge	March 2, 2009[59]	Norwegian
Pakistan	Wipeout Pakistan also known as Big Splash		Geo TV		Urdu
Poland	Wipeout - Wymiatacze	Tomasz Zimoch, Krzysztof 'Jankes' Jankowski, Katarzyna Olubińska	TVN	February 13, 2011	Polish
Russia	Жестокие игры Zhestokiye Igry	Dmitry Dibrov, Kirill Nabutov, Yana Churikova	Channel One[60]	7 March 2010	Russian
Serbia	Wipeout	Ivan Tešanović and Miljan Milićević	FOX Televizija	November 8, 2009	Serbian
Spain	¡Guaypaut!	John Anderson, John Henson, Jill Wagner	Telecinco[61]	December 24, 2008	Spanish
Slovakia	Wipeout - Súboj národov	Janka Hospodárová, Libor Bouček	Markíza	July 3, 2011	Slovak
Slovenia	Wipeout	Jernej Kuntner and Tomaž Cuder	TV 3	Slovenian voice-over of the American version since season 3	Slovene
Sweden	Wipeout	Felix Herngren, Hans Wiklund, Sofia Wistam	Kanal 5 (Swedish)	March 8, 2009	Swedish
Turkey	Wipeout	Asuman Krause	Show TV[62]	January 30, 2008	Turkish
Ukraine	БУМ, Битва українських міст BUM, Bytva Ukrayinskyh Mist	Stepan Kazanin, Valeria Ushakova, Alexander Krikun	Inter TV	March 7, 2010	Ukrainian
United Kingdom	Total Wipeout	Richard Hammond[63] and Amanda Byram	BBC One, BBC Three, CBBC[64]	3 January 2009 – 31 December 2012	English

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), New Zealand on TV3,^[65] 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]
• 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 (US)
• Fear Factor
• I Survived a Japanese Game Show
• Brain Wall
• MXC / Takeshi's Castle
• Real World/Road Rules Challenge
• Sasuke (AKA Ninja Warrior)
• Jeux Sans Frontieres
• 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show (U.S. game show)
• Fort Boyard
• Splatalot!
• Total Wipeout

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

• Official website
• Wipeout on Facebook
• Wipeout at the Internet Movie Database
• 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))