The Quiz With Balls is the stupidest game show I’ve ever seen. Ever. Seen.

I love game shows and quiz shows. When done right, they’re entertaining and a great view. When done poorly … well … you know.

At one point, I thought one of the worst game shows ever created was the American version of the Japanese game show Hole In The Wall. Trust me, I blogged about this abomination FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, and since then, all the YouTube links in that original blog post have expired.

The worst game show to ever air on FOX is coming back???

But if you really want to torture your brain cells … here’s an episode of it.

That’s right. You had to wiggle your way through a cutout on an advancing wall, or you would end up in the water. That’s the game show. Plain and simple.

So what did I see the other night on that same Fox network?

This program. The Quiz With Balls. Apparently it’s based on a popular game show from the Netherlands. Because, yeah, Americans can’t come up with their own game shows any more.

Here’s how it works. A team of five players goes up against a team of five other players in a trivia competition. For every wrong answer they provide, a big yellow ball rolls down a ramp and knocks them into the water.

That’s it. Seriously, that’s it. I haven’t seen anything this lame since Riley Gaines claimed she won a swim meet when she finished second.

Look, I could possibly get past the convoluted gameplay, and yeah maybe it’s funny the first time to see some unsuspecting game show contestant land in the water.

I mean, if you’re going to recreate a chase scene from The Prisoner, maybe there’s something here.

But here’s my problem with this show. And it’s all in the execution.

See, how do we know that the big inflatable balls will know when to stop and when to knock down their targets?

It’s all in the sloppy editing.

I’ll explain.

The people stand in front of the pool, and they stand between what appear to be two iron stanchions. The balls – six of them – are on a ramp. When the balls are released, they roll down the ramp. Wrong answers will bump a person into the water. Right answers will cause the ball to stop just before they send the contestant into splashtime.

But how do the balls stop?

Somehow, a big steel bar appears to block the correct-answer ball from banging into the contestant. The bar doesn’t appear when the balls start rolling down the ramp … but when the moment of impact arrives, you can see what appears to be a steel barrier bar just behind the contestant. If you look between the contestant’s legs, you can see the stopping bar. Which just HAPPENED to appear.

Did it pop up out of the floor? Did a stagehand run across the stage and jam the bar into the floor just before the ball arrived? Did the director yell “CUT” and the contestants waited patiently for someone to determine where the barriers would be placed, and then be told “Act surprised when you do a half-gainer, oh and the water’s very cold today.”

Yeah, that just ruins the effect. It’s almost as if the contestant knows they’re doing the Nestea Plunge, and they’re supposed to pretend they have no idea that it’s happening.

Feh.

If this is the best Fox can come up with for prime time programming … at least make it more appealing. Combine it with a wet T-shirt contest and banana hammocks. Instead of water, have them land in a swimming pool full of Jell-O. Or full of orange juice. Or full of tequila. Hell, make it a bathtub of sugar free Red Bull and I’ll try out as a contestant.

But seriously … The Quiz With Balls may be a quiz, and it may have balls …

But truth be told, this show has absolutely no cojones.