“We really felt that we should be doing our own version of shows that the kids love to watch, but with a Nickelodeon lens,” Bagshaw says. With zeitgeist-stealing reality shows dominating network TV ratings and drawing in families for, in network exec-speak, “co-viewing opportunities,” the time felt right for Nickelodeon to go back to its roots with a competition show. The reality television veteran behind hits like RuPaul’s Drag Race and Top Chef Master was brought in to broaden Nickelodeon’s unscripted programming, which he admits has traditionally taken a backseat to animation and scripted at the network. I grab fistfills, but soon learn the dry run sews no cash reward.Īfterwards, Rob Bagshaw, Nickelodeon’s executive vice president of unscripted content, appears from beyond the Crystal Dome to tout his first big gamble since he took the position six months prior. Soon it’s filled with quickly circulating wind, like leaf blowers are howling at you from all directions, and flaky gold papers cling to your body and swirl all around you. Stepping inside the enclosed dome is nerve-wracking at first, particularly for an American unfamiliar with the series and no awareness of how the Dome works its magic. When we visited the Bristol set, the Dome was the last stop on our studio tour, but also the most rewarding. The Crystal Dome is the centerpiece of the show experience. 24, is an Americanized version of the popular game show from England’s Channel 4. The Crystal Maze, which premieres on Friday, Jan. This time on foriegn soil, Nickelodeon filmed its latest game show entry at a studio in Bristol, England, some 4,2000 plus miles from sunny Orlando, Florida. Nearly 15 years after Nickelodeon closed the studio doors, and with it the chapter on its rich history of children’s game shows, the network is back in the game show business.

It marked the end of an era as Nick shifted its focus away from games to animation and live action. Promoting a physical location as a destination for young viewers of the network built a sense of community that was truly unique in the years before internet fandom largely would come to define how we socially engaged with the next decade of television.īut by the early 2000s, there was a sharp decline in production at the Orlando studio as Nickelodeon moved the majority of its operation west. Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios’ Florida outpost was the epicenter of the network-from game shows like Double Dare to sketch comedy with All That-throughout the ‘90s. To fans of a certain age, the dream of participating in a Nickelodeon game show could only be realized if you had a high tolerance for slime, but more crucially: the good fortune to be on a family vacation to Orlando.

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