3 new reality competitions, including Assassin, and 2 revivals

After turning the party game Mafia into The Traitors, Peacock is now adapting the campus game Assassins into a reality TV competition called, well, Assassins.

In addition, we’ve recently learned about about forthcoming reality TV shows are two that captured my attention: CBS’s revival of Undercover Boss and Netflix’s change to Secret Millionaire.

Assassin, produced by ScarJo

The adaption of Assassins comes from B17 Entertainment, which produces Fox’s Extracted, among other shows, and, for some reason, Scarlett Johansson.

How do you spell “Assassins,” because I’m really struggling with it? More importantly, how do you turn a game that spans an entire school campus into a reality TV show?

In the campus game, players are assigned to bump each other with non-lethal weapons like water guns, Nerf darts, or DVD copies of Scarlett Johansson movies. If they succeed, they go after their target’s target next. The game has been freaking adults out for more than a decade now.

Peacock describes its version like this:

From the moment they arrive, each player is assigned a target — one person they must eliminate before the season is out. But in this game, every hunter is also the hunted, and no one is ever safe. With shifting alliances and deception, only the most calculating player will survive to win it all. 

Part of what works about Assassins the campus game is that not everyone is playing, and the playing field and time is vast. But if everyone’s an assassin, how do they hang out in the same space without a bunch of people bumping each other off? What kind of weapons do they use? Tossed apples?

I assume they’ve figured this out! It just seems like The Traitors made a small party game bigger and more theatrical, while Assassins is shrinking a bigger game.

Big Brother producers’ new fast format

In other news, Big Brother producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan will produce a show that gives away $1 million after 24 hours, rather than $750,000 after three insufferable months.

CBS’s 24 Hour Millionaire looks to me like it’s capitalizing on the We can film a whole season in a day! thing. Why spend three months paying crew when you can do it in one day?!

Here’s CBS’s description:

…assembles the most skilled game players and puts them to the ultimate test: 24 nonstop hours of social strategy and physical competitions where one player is guaranteed to walk away with a $1 million prize. Only the best of the best will be invited, and they will be challenged to play an entirely new game where literally every second counts. In this ticking time bomb of strategy and gameplay, they will face off in groundbreaking series where thinking fast is essential; assessing threats is critical and performing under pressure is crucial. With no breaks and no rest, the pressure builds as the clock ticks down over an intense 24 hours, pushing even the most accomplished competitors to their limits.

That sounds like Big Brother, except for the part about thinking.

Stacks of Cash from stacking random shit

The other new CBS show is a format from Eureka, producers of the classic Holey Moley, the rebooted Mole, and that Willy Wonka abomination.

Portugal’s version already aired this summer, and CBS and Australian broadcaster Seven also filmed versions in Portugal on the same set.

Mike O’Malley hosts CBS’s version. Fremantle, which sold the format globally, describes it like this:

Contestants answer general knowledge questions to win giant shapes worth real cash, then use an enormous claw to build an increasingly teetering tower. But they never know which of the 30+ shapes is coming next—a circle, a teddy bear, a top hat—the sheer variety makes stacking increasingly challenging as the tower rises.

As the money grows, so does the tower, creating can’t-look-away suspense as every new shape leaves one question hanging in the balance: will it stay or will it fall?

Undercover Boss, back from the dead

CBS is bringing back Undercover Boss, which kind of sputtered to an end in its last three seasons, which spanned five years. Drew Carey will host, because he needs the work.

CBS calls this “a refreshed take on a beloved format for today’s audience” but then describes it exactly like the old one: “Corporate leaders go undercover within their own organizations to gain firsthand insight into their workforce and operations.”

My issue with the show is that it often ended up blaming low-level employees for systemic problems, and then gave people who worked through those problems anyway some swag or money instead of, like, better wages and working conditions.

Anyway, we’ll see how a show that centers corporate bosses in 2026 looks like.

Battle of the Network Stars

And also being revived: Battle of the Network Stars, again, this time as Battle of the Streaming Stars, who will battle for attention via Zoom.

Oh wait, no: actually, The Roku Channel’s reboot—which premieres later this month—will follow the old format, just expanding the casting to include, you know, whoever qualifies as a “star” today:

Comedians, actors, reality stars, and creators from audiences’ favorite shows will trade the couch for the field, going head-to-head in larger-than-life challenges inspired by the shows and movies people love.

I am curious about those challenges, which sound a lot more interesting than the weak versions Bravo gave us in 2005.

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