Downfall

It's one of the better trends of modern television: networks stepping in to rescue canceled shows. DirecTV, for instance, recently saved the critically acclaimed FX series 'Damages' from certain doom, while Comedy Central brought cult favorite 'Futurama' back from the dustbin of history. And most famously, of course, Fox corrected its own mistake by bringing back 'Family Guy' after a massive fan outcry that lasted years. Yes, these days, quality, popular series will often get a second lease on life.

And apparently that's also the case for unpopular nonsense.

Yes, it's hard to believe, but as we mentioned yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Cartoon Network has decided to revive the decidedly unacclaimed and short-lived Fox game show 'Hole in the Wall.' That show, you may recall, features people on a giant treadmill who have to contort themselves, Tetris-style, to fit through cutouts in a series of rapidly approaching walls.

'Downfall' (Tue., 9PM ET on ABC) is the new game show that offers fabulous, fabulous prizes -- with one slight twist. If the contestants fail to answer the trivia questions on the show, then their prizes are thrown off the top of a building ... to crash on the ground below.

On the premiere episode of the show, a young woman named Nicole does her best to answer host Chris Jericho's questions. She does well for a while -- winning a prize of $25,000. But then, things start to go wrong. And things start to get tossed off a 10-story roof.

Nicole loses a living room set, a car, and $50,000 dollars. All of these prizes move down a conveyor belt -- and then get smashed on the sidewalk. Sad! Nicole, if only you had been faster with your answers, then we wouldn't have to witness a new car being crushed in slow motion. Or watch thousands of dollars being tossed into the air. Oh well. She did her best.

Chris Jericho is going from tossing people out of the ring to hurling them off skyscrapers.

The pro-wrestler has signed to host ABC's new game show 'Downfall,' in which contestants answer trivia questions on top of an L.A. high-rise. If they get the questions wrong, they risk seeing their winnings, personal possessions, and even their friends and family fly off the side of the building, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

An earlier report suggested that the players themselves could take the plunge off the rooftop if they fail to answer the questions correctly.

If you were shocked to hear about ABC's 'Downfall,' a game show that drops people off of buildings for our amusement, you clearly don't watch enough TV and lead a rich, fulfilling life.

Television's long and storied history is filled with game and competition shows that pit their contestants in a physical, psychological and gastrointestinal showdown, most of which were lost to the ravages of obscurity. Well, it's "filled" if you only look at the last few years or so when the economy tanked and people turned to humiliating themselves in the national media to keep from having to hunt small rodents for sustenance. That's how 'The View' got started.

These are the shows that not only tortured contestants, but also their viewing audience unless Dick Cheney happened to be watching any of them.

It looks like the networks have run out of ideas for reality shows and game shows that are set on the ground, so now they're thinking vertically. ABC has ordered a game show titled 'Downfall,' where contestants vie for $1 million by answering trivia questions on top of a skyscraper. If they miss a question, the money flies off the side of the building to the street below.

The part of the game that will get the most attention from viewers and the ABC legal department? Players might take a plunge off of the building too (wearing a harness, of course).

Everyone loves a good game show. Fans enjoy the spectacle of real people playing a game with the chance to win enough money to change their life, while networks enjoy the low-production costs that make those prizes cheaper than filming a scripted series. It's a win-win for everyone, except, of course, when the players lose. The only trick in a genre as old as the game show is to come up with a fresh new idea.

Or, you could just play the game on top of a big building.

Yes, according to the Hollywood Reporter, ABC has given the greenlight to 'Downfall,' a game show in which contestants vying for cash must complete tasks to prevent their winnings from falling off the side of a building. Just as 'Speed' was pitched to studios as 'Die Hard' on a bus, in Hollywood terms, 'Downfall' is 'Jeopardy' on a building.