Sometimes the FOX network puts a show on TV and it just stinks up the channel. Sometimes the shows get fewer viewers than an Albany City School District board meeting. For every “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” or “Don’t Forget the Lyrics,” there have been some “which moron green-lighted this program” fare, including:
- “The Chamber,” in which a contestant is actually put in a rotating metal chamber and asked trivia questions – all the while the chamber rotates and becomes either icy cold or broiling hot.
- “The Moment of Truth,” in which a contestant is asked very invasive personal yes-or-no questions, while their family gamely watches as each question is answered – and then verified by a lie detector.
- “Celebrity Spelling Bee,” where I actually watched American Dreams star Vanessa Lengies try to spell out the word “champagne” by writing the word in the air with her index finger.
But the show that topped all of those in terms of hours of my viewing time that I will never get back – was “Hole in the Wall.”
Don’t feel bad if you never saw this show.
“Hole in the Wall” was based on a Japanese game show called “Brain Wall,” in which contestants actually had to twist their bodies so that their bodies could pass through a styrofoam sculpture. If they got through the wall, they earned points. Otherwise, they would get knocked into a big swimming pool.
Here’s a clip of the original “Brain Wall.”
So of course these videos get monster ratings on YouTube, and the show gets syndicated all over the world. In America, Fox decides to put together their own version of the show, calling it “Hole in the Wall.”
Here’s four YouTube clips comprising a full Fox episode.
As you can probably surmise, just because the show is a massive YouTube sensation, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will become a television sensation. The show tanked – figuratively and literally – and Fox burned off the episodes as fast as they could. Some of the shows were aired on the Fox Reality Channel, which I think had a rating about three ticks over a test pattern.
Show dies and nobody mourns. Don’t get me wrong. There are some great Japanese game shows that have devoted cult followings in America – Unbeatable Banzuke, Ninja Warrior, Takeshi’s Castle (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) and, of course, Wipeout. Heck, I could even watch an episode of Hey! Sprig of Trivia, if the show was still available on Spike TV.
But wait. Hole in the Wall’s not quite dead yet.
According to this report, former Real World cast member Teck Holmes (season 8, Hawaii, he was the one who got naked in the swimming pool with Ruthie the drunk) is now the host of a new version of Hole in the Wall,which will start airing on the Cartoon Network this Wednesday, October 6. Okay, someone correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t the “Cartoon Network” be a show where cartoons are broadcast? Just like a station should be playing music videos if it’s called “Music Television?”
Well anyways, here’s a clip of the show – which I guess has been reformulated to have families as contestants.
Okay, this show should last maybe a few weeks on Cartoon Network… get cancelled… and maybe, just maybe, a few years down the road, new episodes will appear on an even tinier television channel. At this point, I’m betting it will show up on a special “Hole in the Wall” themed episode of The Glenn Slingerland Situation, where the hot models in the short black dresses will try to contort their bodies to fit through the styrofoam cutout walls.
You may want to have the pool drained and cleaned, however, if Ace Clayton lands in the water. Just sayin’, is all.
Chuck The Writer 
Hot or Not was the worst game show on Fox.
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