FOX’s New Game Show 99 To Beat Needs To Make An Obvious Change For Season 2

I watched the premiere of FOX’s new game show 99 To Beat last night, and the basic premise is a lot of fun. 100 players are all given a challenge to do at the exact same time, and whoever comes in last is eliminated. Then, during the next round, the remaining 99 players are given a challenge to do at the exact same time, and whoever comes in last is eliminated. On and on it goes until only one person is left, and he or she goes home with a million dollars. Pretty fun, right?

Well, it turns out that’s not exactly how it works. Much to my frustration and assumedly the frustration of everyone else watching, the show threw in a surprise team challenge. The 96 remaining players were separated into eight teams to compete in a relay in which they formed assembly lines and dumped water into buckets. I assumed the twelve members of the losing team would have to compete against each other in a subsequent challenge to see who went home, but instead, the show just sent the entire team home.

99 To Beat is adapted from a game show that originated in Belgium. I have no idea how that OG version works or if it includes challenges in which multiple members of a team go home at the same time, but to me, sending multiple people home violates the entire spirit of the game. I want to see players go home because they were last in a specific challenge. I don’t want to see them go home because they were randomly partnered with someone uncoordinated that can’t pour water into a bucket.

I would imagine 99 To Beat’s producers were thinking this would be an easy way to speed the show up. They were probably also intrigued by the potential drama of people getting mad at their partners, but I’m not looking for the show to be sped up or create drama. I highly doubt anyone watching a show like this is going to stop watching because there are a few additional episodes. If that’s a real concern, then they should have called the show 49 To Beat and just started with way less players. I also think the basic fact of someone getting sent home after every single challenge creates enough drama, especially since many of the players have family members or friends that are also playing.

I’m a big game show and reality competition show guy. I listen to Survivor podcasts. I’ve written power rankings for Top Chef. I watch every episode of Jeopardy, The Amazing Race, The Floor, The Great British Bake Off, MasterChef and like a dozen others. I need competition in my life, and I can get behind a wacky premise. I am the exact target audience for 99 To Beat, but the number one rule of putting on a competition series is you need to follow your own rules.

Throwing in some random a-ha twist in order to “make the game more exciting” is almost never a good idea. Survivor fans were in full-on revolt a few years ago after that stupid hourglass twist. Big Brother fans are still mad weeks after that stupid competition that sent a player home without a vote. And I’m big mad about twelve people going home on 99 To Beat because they got randomly assigned bad teammates.

Unfortunately, the preview for this season says that there are 50 total challenges. That means we are going to get quite a few more moments in which multiple people go home at the same time. I would imagine we'll probably even get some late in the competition when there are only a dozen or so players left, which is going to be infuriating.

I want to like 99 To Beat. I like dumb little games like guessing how much something weighs or filling up buckets with water. This feels like it should be and (mostly) will be an enjoyable way to spend an hour, but long-term, the producers need to get rid of these multiple eliminations. They go against the spirit of the game, and they're only going to get more frustrated as viewers start to get to know the contestants.

99 To Beat is hosted by Ken Jeong and Erin Andrews. It just hit the TV schedule and airs on Sunday nights on FOX. Fingers crossed the show gets renewed and is able to implement changes for Season 2.