Hosts: Tony Sano and Rome Kanda
Executive Producers: Arthur Smith, Kent Weed, David Sidebotham, Karsten Bartholin, and Tim Crescenti
Series Premiere: June 24th 2008
Network: ABC
Airs On: Tuesday nights at 9pm Eastern
Top Prize: $250,000

Overview:

The premise of I Survived a Japanese Game Show is that ten American contestants are "kidnapped" and taken to Japan, where they must live together, compete, and learn to embrace the Japanese culture.

The competition part of the show comes in when these contestants have to take part in some of the most ridiculous and outrageous games they've ever seen.

Each week, one player is eliminated from the competition until the last person standing takes home the $250,000 prize.

Hosts:

What makes this show intriguing is the "show within a show" concept. For the games themselves, Rome Kanda acts as host of a fictional Japanese game show called Majide!

For the rest of the show, Tony Sano is on board to help the contestants learn about Japan, act as translator, and keep the viewers entertained with voiceovers. Sano is an American actor who speaks fluent Japanese.

Japanese Game Show Games:

The real stars of this show are the crazy Japanese games. Some of these include:

• Why is This Food so Hard to Eat? – One contestant runs on a treadmill while balancing a plate of food on his or her head, while another contestant hangs off a platform and tries to eat the food.
• Big Bugs Splat on Windshield – Contestants dress up as bugs and then hurl themselves int a giant windshield.

• Crazy Crane Finds Fluffy Bear – You know those goofy arcade-type games where you try to grab a plush animal with a joystick-controlled crane? Well take a giant crane, blindfold the driver/operator, and dangle a contestant from the end of the crane and ask them to gather as many stuffed bears as they can. That's the Japanese version.
• Chicken Butt Scramble – Contestants dress up as chickens and smash as many great big eggs filled with "goo" as they can. The catch? They have to use only their butts to crush the eggs with.

Team Play:

At the beginning of the season, the contestants are divided into two teams, The Yellow Penguins and The Green Monkeys. There are two games in each episode. In the first game, teams battle against each other with the winners enjoying some type of reward. The losing team must choose two people to go head to head in the elimination game.

The second game is the elimination round. The two chosen team members battle it out to see who stays to play another day, while the loser is eliminated.

Individual Play:

When there are only four contestants left, the games are played individually rather than in teams. This translates to instant elimination for the person with the lowest score or slowest time.

Sayonara!:

When a contestant is eliminated, a group of Japanese men dressed in black suits and sunglasses dances out onto the set and carries the losing contestant out, singing "Sayonara!" The audience also gets involved, singing, chanting, and using their noisemakers as the contestant is removed.