Total Blackout

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Total Blackout is a game show/reality TV show aired on Syfy in 2012, hosted by Jaleel White (a.k.a. Urkel on Family Matters).

As the name of the show suggest, the whole game is set in total darkness and has the players doing certain activities to earn points. Such as feeling around tanks with certain objects, eating food off the stomach of people, making their way though a mini obstacle course, or smell odors through a glass plate.

The game would start off with five contestants (or if its a team episode, four pairs of two people). After a round, it would be reduced down to three then the final two before the one with the most points would be declared the winner. During the rounds, we get commentary from contestants about how they would feel during a round, as per most reality TV staples now a days


Tropes used in Total Blackout include:
  • Blatant Lies: Jameel often misrepresents a challenge's hazards to the contestants, the better to foster their paranoia. The "high platform with holes" contestants must traverse is actually, for example, an ordinary floor.
  • Eat That: One of the games, sometime eaten off plates, other times off the stomach of people.
  • Eliminated From the Race: Contestants are eliminated by standing in front of trap doors and being told to jump on Jaleel's signal. The one with the least points falls through while the winner's door stays shut.
  • Freak-Out: Many contestants do this, especially if it living creature they're touching.
  • Game Show Host: Jaleel of course
  • Hand in the Hole: Reaching into tanks or cages without knowing what's inside is a common challenge.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Indeed, while its not horror related. Must of the fun of the show comes from the fact the contestants can't see and mostly have to rely on their other senses to figure out what they're feeling/tasting/smelling. Alot of their reactions are quite hilarious, especially when they do guess correctly the object.