GSTV's new game show "Sabotage" premiered last Sunday at 8 p.m., bringing an exciting element of suspense to Geneseo's student-run television station.
Freshman Sam White, the host, producer, director and editor for the show, said, "I've been really happy with the result and I think this is one of the most successful shows GSTV has ever had."
Filming for the show began last spring and it took several months to perfect each episode. White believed "Sabotage" was the perfect type of game show for GSTV because "it really lends itself to the college environment and having college students as contestants."
In the game of "Sabotage," 10 contestants are chosen to compete in challenges. When a challenge is won, points are awarded to the contestants. The twist is that one of the contestants is secretly a saboteur, in cahoots with the host and GSTV, and does his or her best to sabotage the challenges.
After competing in four challenges, the contestants take a quiz about the saboteur's identity. Whoever scores the lowest on the test will be eliminated.
During the first episode, the contestants encountered each other in the College Union Mailroom under the pretext of a meet and greet. Little did they know, they would start the game that very day.
The contestants succeeded in the first challenge, which required them to sit on each other's knees in a circle for a set amount of time.
Next, the contestants participated in a scavenger hunt, finding clues that would eventually lead them to the host of the show. The frustrations and disagreements that came with this second challenge caused contestants to speculate on who was the saboteur in their one-on-one interviews.
The third challenge was a game of pool, the results of which caused the contestants to become even more wary and form alliances with one another.
The final challenge was a game of dodgeball against the host and others, which included some of the more unintentionally humorous aspects of the show.
"My favorite part of the show was definitely the guy who was hiding all scrunched up in the corner during the dodgeball game," said sophomore Billy Rutecki, executive producer for GSTV.
The first episode of "Sabotage" revealed that it was much more than a regular game show. The interaction of contestants brought out emotions in both the cast and viewers. Contestants were frustrated with challenges, suspicious of each other and consumed with nervousness at the thought of being eliminated. The show really pulled in its viewers with the one-on-one interviews with contestants and the suspenseful elimination ceremony.
"I really got into the suspense of it all; I was nervous and I already knew how it ended," said senior Kate Palumbo, general manager of GSTV.
Every Sunday at 8 p.m. the station will air a new episode of "Sabotage," culminating in a live show toward the end of the semester, where all the contestants will return for a reunion. Here, interesting events that happened during the show will be revealed and the three remaining contestants - one of them being the mystery saboteur - will compete for the grand prize.