Nickelodeon has green-lit a second season of the hit game show BrainSurge, it was announced today by Marjorie Cohn, Nick’s Executive Vice President of Development and Original Programming. The 40 new episodes will continue to offer viewers even more brain twisters, signature slime and special episodes with kids, families and Nickelodeon stars competing against each other for fun prizes. Host Jeff Sutphen will return to lead the contestants through the various mind-bending challenges that test their visual, memory and analytical skills. BrainSurge, produced by 310 Entertainment and Stone & Company, currently airs Monday-Friday at 4:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
Since its launch in September 2009, the show has emerged as a huge hit with kids and is currently basic cable’s most-watched program in its time period among kids 2-11 and 6-11. Delivering an average of 2 million total viewers per episode, the first season of BrainSurge has grown by almost +20% across all key kid demos from its premiere.
“Kids and families love the interactive experience of the show that cuts across all ages and requires no special knowledge thus leveling the playing field,” said Cohn. “With the new season, we are excited to amp up the game play and continue to build on Nickelodeon’s legacy of successful family game shows.”
BrainSurge features real kids competing in three intense levels of game play that test their powers of memory and concentration. Sutphen energetically guides the action as kids compete for fun prizes. As kids are eliminated they get sucked into the “Face Wall” or slide down the “Brain Drain” but the final winning contestant gets the ultimate prize–a giant, messy, celebratory sliming! In addition, with the push of a button, kids at home can play online at www.nick.com/brainsurge/ and test their mental skills from the comfort of their own homes.
Nickelodeon has a long legacy of creating groundbreaking, original, hit game shows. The first game show that aired on the network was Double Dare in 1986, featuring Nick’s signatory slime. Over the next 16 years, Nickelodeon launched many other game shows including hits such as Finders Keepers and Super Sloppy Double Dare (’87), Family Double Dare, (’88), Make the Grade and Think Fast (’89), Wild and Crazy Kids (’90), Get the Picture (’91), GUTS and Nick Arcade (’92), Legends of the Hidden Temple (’93), Global GUTS, (’95), Figure it Out (’97), You’re On! and Figure it Out: Family Style (’98), Figure it Out: Wild Style (’99), Double Dare 2000 (’00), and Nick Robot Wars and Scaredy Camp (’02). Six years later came Family GUTS (’08) and then BrainSurge (09) — the new wave of game shows for the first generation of Nickelodeon parents and adults that grew up watching shows like Double Dare and GUTS.
BrainSurge is from executive producers Clay Newbill for 310 Entertainment, Scott A. Stone (Legends of the Hidden Temple) for Stone & Company Entertainment and David A. Hurwitz. The game show is based on the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television program Brain Survivor.