A danger! The executive producer has broken his silence about a “terrible mistake” made during an episode aired last week that showed the end result before the game had even started.
Mayim Bialik has recently returned Danger! to host the High School Reunion Tournament which concluded last week and at which Brown University freshman Justin Bolsen was crowned the winner.
The final episodes of the tournament were explored in this week’s episode of the Internal Danger! Podcast in which Michael Davies, the producer, addressed the mistake made when the first episode of the two-part finale aired last Wednesday.
As Bialik introduced the episode, in the background, contestant Jackson Jones had won the first episode of the finale for $24,000, followed by Bolsen with $13,570 and Maya Wright with $3,370.
Addressing the faux pas some viewers have picked upDavies said on the podcast: “Right off the bat, apologies to the entire audience. We totally screwed it up at the top of the show. We made a terrible mistake revealing the final results at the end in the opening shot during the cutaway of Mayim’s monologue.”
He continued: “It’s a series of mistakes. It’s kind of remarkable that they all happened, starting with the decision to record the monologue, which was probably the right decision. Although Sarah [Whitcomb Foss, a producer] and I can remember exactly what was wrong with the monologue, why we probably picked it up.
“But we do occasionally record monologues for some reason. Sometimes there is a fact that is wrong. Sometimes there is just a performance issue. So we’ll catch it up at the end of the show,” he said.
Davies went on to explain that protocol has not been followed in such situations where scoreboards are cleared to their original value.
“Of course it should be standard procedure – and it is meant to be standard procedure – that we bring the scores on the podiums back to where they were, but it didn’t happen. That was not caught then [postproduction]and it was not caught in the final [quality control]. There are so many elements that should check this out,” he said.
Due to the bug, changes were made to the production flow to ensure that spoilers of this type never slip through the cracks again.
“We have now put in place a new set of protocols that will prevent anything like this from happening again,” Davies said. “I’m sure in all your jobs, if you’re honest with yourself, mistakes are made in any of your businesses.”
He continued: “My whole thing is to always not focus on what happened and why this happened to punish people. It’s what happened and why it happened so we can keep a log to make sure it never happens again. And that’s how we live and learn, and we apologize to anyone whose experience with this program has been ruined.
“We take these mistakes so seriously. The self-flagellation that’s occurring throughout the leadership team and the postal team and everyone involved is a good thing Driven! INWe take mistakes very, very seriously.”
Davies continued: “What we’re trying to do is be more transparent when we’re making them and at times on our social media and on this podcast to talk about how we made the mistake and reassure you that we’re doing everything we can to stop making them in the future.”
Davies concluded his apology by explaining that the expansion of the Danger! franchise, which now spans multiple tournaments and specials, likely led to the error.
“There’s a certain pressure on this production,” he said. “We’re doing more episodes, people work more hours, and that leads to mistakes. But there is still no excuse for that. That was too easy. We will do everything we can to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
After the tournament is over call me cat Star Bialik was replaced by regular show host Ken Jennings. Bialik runs the specials and tournaments all the time Danger! champ Jennings hosts the prime time show.
