Co-operative instead of competitive reality tv game shows.

If you are in touch with video game news, the reality show, GAME_JAM, ended on its first day as a result of the indie devs participating in the show walk out on the show after some attempts to seed conflict in the group by the TV production as well as some bad contracts that could prove detrimental to the devs.

So basically the people making this thought they could get the typical reality TV drama out of a group of indie game developers, and it backfired big time.

So I am now asking are there any reality TV competition shows where it isn't about a group being slowly picked off until only one person remains who is then crowned a winner?

Personally, I see an opportunity for a newer better reality TV show about indie game developers where the first few episodes demonstrate their individual skills and styles. But in the middle of season, they are grouped into ever increasing team sizes, until the last few episodes when there is just one team consisting of all the participants working on the season's magnum opus game.

edited 1st Apr '14 11:03:53 PM by Worlder

The closest I can think of is The Mole. It's still a show where the contestants are picked off one by one, but not through the usual politics and drama that's come to be a cliche of the genre. Instead, all the contestants (except for the Mole, who's disguised as a contestant) are generally working together towards a common goal for most challenges, save for the occasional dilemma where a contestant may have to choose between benefiting themselves immediately or adding money to the pot that goes to the eventual winner. Elimination is not determined by votes or judges; rather, the contestants are tasked with figuring out who is the Mole and tracking their actions throughout the game, and each elimination is determined by a test about that information, with the lowest scoring player being sent home.

The US version did tend to give sadistic challenges and Mind Screw the contestants to produce more drama, but there's a version in the Netherlands which is actually quite a friendly game. In virtually every elimination on that version, everyone—even the Mole—is genuinely sad to see the losing player leave. For those interested, it still airs one season a year, usually January through March, and there's English fansubs on You Tube. (Unfortunately one member of the subbing team vanished from the 'net last week. I'm hoping she's all right and it's just something mundane like connection troubles. For now, the finale of the most recent season is still unsubbed.)

Who Wants To Be A Superhero was the only one I could think of. In fact, Stan sent a few superheroes home for acting like it was Survivor, IIRC.