game-shows

How a Geek Cracked the Jeopardy! Code

Ryan Tate · 11/16/11 05:33PM

Roger Craig had never been on Jeopardy! before, but by the end of his first day of taping, he'd won five games in a row, the most lucrative day for any contestant in the show's history, including the most lucrative game in the show's history. His secret? A web app that modeled the show's all too predictable question sequences.

Alex Trebek Makes a Surprisingly Good Drag Queen

Maureen O'Connor · 11/10/11 02:19PM

Last night on Jeopardy!'s Tournament of Champions, a giddy Alex Trebek dressed up in Metropolitan Opera costumes for a trippy category on "Operatic Costumes." Now that we have seen America's most robotic game show host vamping in a Le Comte Ory nun costume, are we ready for the gender-bending Rapture? [Jeopardy, Esquire, @ZWoolfe]

Man Killed By a Cash Cab

Seth Abramovitch · 07/17/11 08:32PM

A mocked-up taxi used in the Canadian version of the Discovery Channel game show Cash Cab struck and killed a Vancouver pedestrian on Friday night.

Here's a Video of People Falling Down on the Last Wipeout

Matt Cherette · 07/07/11 02:48AM

Wipeout is a game show on ABC in which contestants tackle "the world's largest obstacle course" in the hopes of escaping with $50,000. More often than not, though, they leave with nothing but bumps and bruises. Watching these poor saps fall down in every way imaginable is the most entertaining thing about Wipeout, and viewers often wish the show contained nothing but the contestants' mishaps. Which is why Gawker video intern Daniel LeDonne took last week's new episode and edited it down to the most schadenfreude-heavy two minutes. Enjoy!

All the Ridiculous Stunts from 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show

Brian Moylan · 06/29/11 05:37PM

The premise of ABC's 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show is that if a contestant answers a question incorrectly, he or she is tortured in some elaborate way. Awesome, right? The lame part is all the crazy stunts are padded out with lots of time-killing filler. Well, not anymore!

Insane Japanese Game Show Spanks Contestants for Laughing

Preksha Kumar · 03/27/11 02:00PM

This game show is ridiculous, to say the least. Some guy is counting, inaccurately, in English and a roomful of contestants have to watch him without laughing. If they do, they get spanked by masked men and are thrown out.

Dutch Game Show Gets Explicit

Marisa Gladstone · 03/03/11 12:25PM

This Dutch game show becomes x-rated when one contestant comes up with a most unique response. We can all be sure that despite the language barrier, this answer is never okay for television. Otherwise, we may have a lot to learn about the Dutch.

Bow Before Your Jeopardy-Playing Computer God

Adrian Chen · 02/16/11 09:44PM

Computers are officially better than humans at Jeopardy. IBM's supercomputer Watson beat out Jeopardy champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter for a second night in a row—without even being connected to the Internet! A few embarrassing missteps (answering "Dorothy Parker" instead of "The Elements of Style" on a Daily Double) couldn't keep Watson from annihilating his human competition. (See above for Watson's winning Final Jeopardy answer.)

Watch a Computer Win $1 Million on Jeopardy!

Matt Cherette · 02/16/11 07:37PM

Tonight brought us part three of the ultimate Jeopardy! challenge, with an IBM-created computer, Watson, battling all-time show favorites Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. In the end, Our New Robot Overlord was victorious, taking home $1 million for "his" charities.

Mysterious Japanese TV Show: Kittens in Bowls

Maureen O'Connor · 02/16/11 06:03PM

I do not know the rationale behind this mysterious Japanese TV show where dozens of kittens are set loose in a room full of casserole dishes in which they must curl up and sleep. I do not know if the rationale matters.

Jeopardy-Playing Computer Shows No Mercy

Max Read · 02/14/11 08:45PM

Did you see IBM's Jeopardy-playing computer, Watson, play against show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter tonight? (You may have been thinking "What black magick is this, that a talking box should play at being human?" yet verily, I tell you, it is no black magick but a "Mechanical Turk" fastened of steel and copper wire.)

Watch the Most Excited Price is Right Contestant Ever

Kate Erskine · 12/22/10 01:20PM

Game show contestants are generally kinda nuts, but this girl really takes crazy to a new level. Although we usually find this kind of behavior to be annoying, she is actually rather endearing. A collection of her freak outs inside.

Jeopardy! Contestant Takes Alex Trebek's Mom for $400

Matt Toder · 12/20/10 10:10AM

Things got a little nuts last week on the set of Jeopardy! when they unveiled a pretty crazy set of categories for Double Jeopardy. It led to one contestant actually saying: "Alex, I'll take Your Momma for $400."