50 Weird Facts about Bizarre Game Shows – Part 2

In 2002, on a game show called 'The Chamber,' contestants were strapped into a torture chamber. The chamber could get as hot as 150°F or as cold as -20°F. Contestants would also be deprived of oxygen and given electric shocks, amongst other tortures.

2. 'Intervilles' was a French comedy and game show that featured teams representing towns in France competing in a series of games, some of which involved live cows and bulls. The bulls would be adolescents and would enter the ring with rubber balls on their horns for safety. They would then be let loose to disrupt the competitors and would often attack them by goring them.

3. In 1993, Chris Tarrant hosted a short-lived game show whose objective was the exact opposite of any other game show. Contestants had to give wrong answers and the show was called 'Lose a Million.'

4. There was a Russian game show named Interception that would have you steal a car and if you didn't get caught by the police within 35 minutes, you win the car. Otherwise, you would be arrested.

5. A game show called 'Double Dare' which was hosted by Alex Trebek, aired on CBS in the 70s. It pitted two contestants in booths attempting to identify something based on one-sentence clues. The champion would then face 3 PhDs in a bonus round. It lasted for 4 months from 1976 to 1977.

There was a Japanese game show called 'Japanarama' in which an elderly woman had to answer questions about pop culture to prevent her grandson from being shot into the sky by a bungee machine.

7. There was an American game show named ‘The Chair’ where the contestant was seated in a chair. Their heart rate was monitored with every question and money was deducted from their earnings if they got nervous and their heart rate spiked. It was cancelled after just 4 episodes were aired in 2002.

8. There is a Croatian game show called 'Tko ce ga znati' in which the contestants are just "random bypassers" on the Croatian streets. They have to answer several questions and they lose if their answer isn't the same as another "random bypasser."

9. There was a game show in the 1970s called "The Neighbors" where women had to guess which one of their neighbors had gossiped stuff about them.

10. There once was a game show named "Think Like a Cat" in which your cat could enable you to win $1,000,000. Eight cats and their owners competed in the contest, which included contestants playing games with their cats, showcasing their knowledge of cat-based trivia and their relationships with their own cats. The show premiered as a one-time special in 2008.

Bumper Stumpers was a Canadian game show in which two teams of two players competed to decipher gramogram letter puzzles presented as fictional vanity license plates. The show aired between 1987 and 1990.

12. Destination MIR was a game show where the winner would have won a trip to space and a stay on the Russian MIR Space Station. CBS signed a $20 million deal with the private company MirCorp that had leased the Mir space station from the Russian government. It was canceled when the space station was destroyed.

13. In the reality show "I Want to Marry Harry," the contestants were brainwashed into believing that the guy, they were dating on the show was Prince Harry. They even sent the contestants a fake "therapist" to convince them he was real.

14. The reason the game show 'Fear Factor' was canceled was that they had a challenge where the contestants drank donkey semen. It wasn’t even the final test to win the grand prize.

15. There was a TV show piloted in Germany where twelve contestants donated their sperm to a lab where doctors observed their seed race towards an egg. The winner of 'The Sperm Race' got a Porsche.

There was a German TV show named 'Schlag den Raab' where you competed against the show’s host in all kinds of games (everything from sports, quizzes, fun stuff, etc.). The price was set at €500,000 for each show and the host won the game, it all went into a jackpot. The show ran from 2006 to 2015.

17. In 1988, a contestant on the game show "Super Password" won the highest jackpot in the history of the show at the time ($55,000), only to be arrested shortly after due to a viewer of the show revealing that the contestant was a wanted fraudster in Alaska, Indiana, and California.

18. A Japanese game show once made contestants play "Binocular Soccer". Each player had a pair of Binoculars strapped to their face.

19. There was a British game show named '3-2-1' which was notorious for the unconventional prizes it awarded to its winners. One couple won a brand new metal dustbin and another one won a St. Bernard and a year's supply of brandy. The show ran from 1978 to 1988.

20. Ice Cube produced and created a game show named ‘Black. White.’, which premiered in 2006 and ran for just one season. In it, a white family was applied black face and a black family was applied white face and they would 'trade experiences.'

One contestant on the Australian TV quiz show "Sale of the Century", answered only one question correctly in one episode and still won.

22. Unan1mous was a reality show in which 9 strangers were locked in a bunker for an indefinite period of time and only one could come out when the group unanimously voted who among themselves should be awarded $1,500,000. It premiered in 2006 on Fox Network and ran for just one season.

23. In 2003, ABC aired a reality show called "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People." Its panel of judges included Lorenzo Lamas and Rachel Hunter. They evaluated contestants on the sole criterion of their physical attractiveness. It was canceled after 6 episodes due to low ratings.

24. ‘Famous in 12’ was a reality show which followed a family and showed how famous a family could become in 12 weeks if given opportunities and assistance. While on the series, the family built their brand by utilizing social media to interact with viewers. Each week featured a "Star Power Meter" that calculated which individual family member was receiving the most interest. It was canceled in week 5 due to lack of interest.

25. There was a French survival reality show named "Dropped", in which contestants were to be airlifted to remote areas to fend for themselves. It was canceled when two helicopters carrying contestants and the production crew crashed in Argentina and 10 of them were killed.