I Survived a Japanese Game Show

I Survived a Japanese Game Show is an American reality show that saw its first-season premiere on ABC on June 24, 2008. The show followed a group of Americans, who leave the United States for Japan where they competed in a Japanese style game show.[2] The winner takes home US$250,000 (JP ¥25 million).[3] The series won both the Best Reality prize and the overall prize at the 2009 Rose d'Or ceremony.

I Survived a Japanese Game Show
GenreReality Television;
Game Show
Created byDavid Sidebotham;
Karsten Bartholin
(also executive producers)
Directed byKent Weed
StarringTony Sano
(TV host, Season 1)
Rome Kanda
(Majide host)[1]
Narrated byRobert Cait
Country of originUnited States
Original languagesEnglish
Japanese
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes15
Production
Executive producersArthur Smith;
Kent Weed;
Tim Cresenti, David Sidebotham, Karsten Bartholin
Production locationsToho Studios, Tokyo, Japan
Running time60 minutes
120 minutes (Season Finale)
Production companiesA Smith & Co. Productions
Babyfoot Productions
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseJune 24, 2008 (2008-06-24) –
August 5, 2009 (2009-08-05)

On October 9, 2008, it was renewed for a second season.[4] On March 5, 2010, it was announced that ABC had not renewed the show for a third season.[5]

Format
Season 1 logo

In Season One, the contestants are informed that they are to take part in a reality-style competition, but not informed of the nature of the show. They are flown to Tokyo, Japan, and taken to the Toho Studios, where it is revealed that they are to compete on a Japanese game show called Majide (本気で). For Season Two, Majide host Rome Kanda surprised each of the contestants in their hometowns informing them they were going to Japan.

Teams are assigned into one of two teams and competed in Challenges against each other; the winning team was given a reward activity while the losing team was given a punishment activity after their team game. The losing team in each team challenge had to nominate two members to compete in an elimination challenge head-to-head (if the team could not reach a decision, the winning team decides the members instead; however, if the team had only two members remaining, they will be competing by default). The two members compete and the losing contestant is eliminated from the show, which would be carried offstage and sent back to the United States by the "sayonara mob" (脱落者决定), dressed in black suits.

In the second season, episodes prior to the finale had three games each. The winner of the first game would be awarded with an advantage for the second challenge, and two members of the team that lost the second game would compete in an elimination challenge.

In the final phase of the competition, teams are dissolved and the remaining contestants compete in challenges as individuals, with the last-placed contestant facing elimination. The final two competed in one final challenge, dubbed Super Majide!, which comprises various elements combined from past challenges for the season, and the winner of the final challenge is named the season's winner and won $250,000 (¥25 million) cash prize. The winner is also greeted by the same "sayonara mob" dressed in white suits, known as the "omedeto mob" ("congratulations mob") (優勝者決定).

The series followed not only the Majide competition, but also the contestants' activities backstage and outside the game show in reality style. The contestants lived in a house together in the suburb of Kasai, with a Mama-san (Kozue Saito), who generally expects the contestants to live in line with Japanese culture and customs. In season 2, they live in the Majide Guest House with Mama-san.

The host of season one was Japanese-American Tony Sano, who commented, "It's going to be like nothing American audiences have seen on network television."[6] Episodes are narrated by Robert Cait.

The show was produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions (the producers of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares in the USA) with Arthur Smith, Kent Weed of A. Smith and Co. and Tim Cresenti of Small World International Format Television as executive producers and Weed directing, and is distributed by Disney/ABC's Greengrass Productions division. The format was created by Danish producers Karsten Bartholin and David Sidebotham for Babyfoot ApS, and was originally titled Big in Japan.

Majide
Majide logo

Majide (which is Japanese slang for "Seriously?!"), the show-within-the-show, was not an actual Japanese game show, but was intended to resemble a Japanese game show. The American producers watched hours of Japanese game shows, took the most common elements and created all of the games, with help from producers in Japan, who also produced the game segments at Toho Studios.[7] In contrast to many American game shows, which are usually based on either trivia (such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or Jeopardy!), mental skill (Wheel of Fortune), celebrity interaction (Match Game or The $100,000 Pyramid), or even dumb luck (Let's Make a Deal), Japanese game shows such as Takeshi's Castle and Sasuke tend to be more physically oriented; I Survived a Japanese Game Show uses the Japanese show Majide as its source for challenges, while the reality show format used a strategy base for whom to eliminate and whom to keep, in the tradition of Big Brother and Survivor.

Majide is hosted by Rome Kanda and judged by Masahiro Hurugori, known on the show as Judge Bobu (Bob). Kanda has translated "Majide" (マジで) as "You've got to be crazy!", or simply as "seriously!?".

Season overview

Season One
Main article: I Survived a Japanese Game Show (season 1)

The first episode premiered on ABC on June 24, 2008, ran for seven episodes and ending on August 6, 2008. Ten contestants competed in two challenges each week (one team game and one elimination game).

Justin Wood was named the winner and Donnell Pitman was the season's runner-up.

Season Two
Main article: I Survived a Japanese Game Show (season 2)

The second season premiered on June 17, 2009, ran for eight episodes and ending on August 5, 2009. 12 contestants competed in three challenges weekly (one advantage, one team game and one elimination game). The final episode had six games (two team games and four elimination challenges). Sano did not return from hosting, and Kanda assumed the roles for both.

Cathy Grosam was named the winner and Linda Plaxen was the season's runner-up.

International Syndication and Formats

Besides the US, sixteen other countries bought the format. The American version of this show aired in Australia on 7Two, Denmark on TV3, Hungary on Animax, New Zealand's TV2, Poland's AXN, Singapore's Channel 5, the Philippines' Studio 23, Sweden's TV6, Slovenia's TV3 Slovenia and Portugal's SIC Radical. The Greek version of the show (under the original name Big In Japan) airs on Alpha TV. In Malaysia it airs on 8tv, in South Africa on Animax.

International Formats
Country/Region Local title Network(s) Year aired Host(s)
 Greece Big in Japan Alpha TV February 1, 2009 Kalomoira with Yoshi Amao
 Norway Hjelp, jeg er med i et japansk gameshow! TV3 February 8, 2009 – April 5, 2009 Sigrid Louise Gundersen
 Sweden Hjälp! Jag är med i en japansk TV-show TV4 2009 Carolina Gynning
 Portugal Portugal de Olhos em Bico TVI November 2009 – 2010 José Pedro Vasconcelos
 Japan ジャパニーズゲームショー「マジで!?」 Dlife March 2012 Tony Sano with Rome Kanda
 Brazil Made in Japão RecordTV March 8, 2020 – June 27, 2020 Sabrina Sato

Greece

A Greek version was produced by Alpha TV and began airing on February 1, 2009 with the title Big in Japan. The host was Kalomoira, a Greek singer, with Yoshi Amao. 12 contestants took part.

Sweden

In 2009, Sweden began airing its own version of the show called Hjälp! Jag är med i en japansk TV-show (Help! I'm in a Japanese television show) with Swedish celebrities competing against each other. The show was produced and aired by TV4. The Swedish version was also recorded in the Toho Studios but did not include Tony Sano, Masahiro Hurugori or Rome Kanda. Instead it was narrated (and sometimes hosted) by Carolina Gynning. The show-within-the-show was not Majide but Do Konjo, and was hosted by Yoshi Amao with Mr. Fu as the judge.

Contestants

The winner of the final episode of Hjälp! Jag är med i en japansk TV-show was Kjell Eriksson, against runner-up Klasse Möllberg.

Norway

A Norwegian version of the Swedish format was aired by the TV3 network.

Portugal

In late November 2009, Portuguese TV station TVI aired its own version of the series called Portugal de Olhos em Bico. It ran only for two episodes. Instead of traveling to Japan, the contestants played the game in a TV studio in Portugal. They were divided into three teams of two members each, each of whom were relatives or friends. The teams were different in each episode, with the team with the most points winning at the end of each episode.

References
  1. "What's New". Archived from the original on 2008-07-11.
  2. "ABC's 'I Survived a Japanese Game Show' June 24". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2008-06-07. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  3. "I Survived a Japanese Game Show's official website". ABC. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved November 2, 2018.
  4. Littleton, Cynthia (October 9, 2008). "ABC falls for 'Game Show'". Variety. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  5. "Wipeout renewed for third season, but I Survived a Japanese Gameshow won't return", Reality Blurred, July 22, 2009, retrieved 23 April 2010
  6. Hurwitz, Matt (June 23, 2008). "Japanese game shows coming to America". The San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08.
  7. "Q&A: Tony Sano of I Survived A Japanese Game Show", MSN TV.
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