Short-lived 2002 Game Show on MTV in which three friends had to rescue a fourth friend from a barrage of game show torture not unlike that seen on Trashed or Fear Factor. It was hosted by MTV personality Dave Holmes, with K.D. Aubert as his Lovely Assistant.
The show opens with footage of MTV "Kidnapping" the victim a day in advance and placing him in a holding cell, which becomes an integral part of the game. The game itself is split up into four rounds, each of which is played for the chance to select one of four keys. One of the keys releases the hostage, while the other three do nothing. In each of the first three rounds, or "trials", the team must answer questions to reach a target; each correct answer earns them two points, while an incorrect answer deducts one. If the target is met at the end of the round, the team is allowed to select a key; if the team fails, the victim faces some sort of torture related to their worst fear (a contestant afraid of birds, for example, might be locked in a cage full of them, followed by being "tarred" and feathered, etc.)
The three question rounds were as follows:
- "The Interrogation": Team members had to match the victim's answers, similar to The Newlywed Game; the questions usually fell along the lines of "Which of you is more likely to...?" A team had to score ten points to earn a key here.
- "Solitary Acts": Given several choices, the team had to predict how the victim reacted or performed to several situations in pre-taped bits in his cell. Five points won this round; however, the final question was entitled "Screw Your Friends". This question involved predicting whether the victim would take an offered prize in exchange for a two-point deduction; a correct guess on this question allowed the team to break even.
- "Tell Me What You Know": A two-minute Speed Round in which the victim is given a category and chooses a teammate to answer the question. Points are added and subtracted the same way; however, in this trial the victim was subjected to a bit of torture (such as a live scorpion being placed on him or her) every time a teammate guessed incorrectly. Ten points scored key in this trial.
The fourth and final trial, the "Desperate Act", involved the victim being strapped to a wheel with the names of his teammates on it; to earn a key, the chosen friend was required to participate in his own torture (such as eating a snow cone in which a whole raw fish was ground up with the ice).
After all four trials were played, the "Moment of Truth" was carried out, in which K.D. scanned each of the team's acquired keys in the lock. If the door unlocked, the victim was released and the entire team won a prize such as a trip; if none of the keys opened the lock, the entire team was punished (such as being made to wash Holmes's car).
Not to be confused with the cop show on NBC or the adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Tropes in use include:
- Eat That: Some of the tortures, as well as some of the Desperate Acts.
- Forced to Watch: Played as straight as a game show could possibly play it.
- Game Show Host: Dave Holmes.
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Spiritual Successor: To Trashed, in a sense; an entire game was made out of the former show's "contestant trashing" of one of the losing teammates. - Lovely Assistant: K.D. Aubert.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The tortures are directly related to the kidnapped victim's worst fear.
