Sunday, December 05, 2004

The 10 Best Gameshows Ever: Number 9

Number 9 - Sub Zero

The ultimate interactive experience is what it was billed as and it truly was. The battle of the sexes on TV (again) and this time everyone was involved. Robin Banks and Gemma James were the overseers of the game and also the inhabitants of the bunker. This bunker was the core of the game and unfortunately had a contaminated water supply which could only be fixed by a copious supply of one thing, biospheres. These had to be obtained by the two teams with help from the viewers. In some of the games the players and viewers had to work together, Biorats being the best example where the viewers controlled a pair of robots and tried to push biospheres around so they could be picked up by the players' cranes. Sometimes the players worked alone, Arcadia for example where one player from each team faced off at a video game challenge. Also came times where the viewers were alone like in Web Connection, a quiz over webcams with the resulting biospheres going to the supported teams. The highlight of the show for me however was the almighty Net Detectives, a web wide biosphere hunt. 5 clues were posted on the Sub Zero website at the beginning of the week and the viewers had to find the 5 sites that those clues related to. On those sites lay a biosphere and whichever team's supporters found the most spheres over the week got a bonus sphere at the end of the show. A member from each team also ran the hunt on the day winning biospheres for every site found as well a 6th for getting all 5 (if that makes sense). After every game had been played and the Net Detective results were in (a tense moment as it could turn the game) the winners were announced (to mass cheering in my house if the XXs won or to just me cheering if the XYs won) and prizes were handed out. These included a souvenir biosphere for every member of both teams (someone say Crystal Maze?) but while the winners headed back to the surface the losers had to pay. They would be sent, biospheres and all into the cryogenic chamber where the temperature was (go on, guess) sub zero. Sub Zero is gone now after it changed location to a space station and suddenly sucked but the bunker days alone give it this place. A truly irreplacable show and great Sunday morning telly.

Position - 9th
Created by - Unknown
Still going? - No (1999-2001)
Theme music - Orgasmicly good
Memorable moment - The afternoon after the first show when it was announce that the BBCs network had been so overwhelmed by viewers calling, texting and emailing in that it had crashed completely.

Next time on The 10 Best Gameshows Ever
Number 8 - The Krypton Factor

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