Wipeout is an American television game show that features contestants competing in (what was billed as) the "World's Largest" obstacle course which originally aired on ABC from June 24, 2008, to September 7, 2014.

The first season's success spawned a series of international versions of Wipeout, debuting in countries including the United Kingdom and Argentina in January 2009.

[8] The announcement added: "Wipeout has the distinction of being the only broadcast reality series launched in recent years that has demonstrated proven staying power."

Reportedly revamped for an eighth season as Wipeout Extreme, by the summer of 2015, ABC had quietly canceled the show and removed it from the network website.

[1][22] In September 2020, John Cena, Nicole Byer, and Camille Kostek were announced as hosts of the rebooted Wipeout.

[25] One notable controversy occurred on November 18, 2020 when contestant Michael Paredes lost consciousness after falling from the show’s obstacle course and then died the next day.

They typically involve large structures that competitors have to enter, navigate around while hostile devices try to knock them off, and then jump to a landing pad to finish, where Jill Wagner awaits them.

The challenges change each week, but always feature offbeat and comical obstacles, such as the "Sucker Punch", "Big Balls" (the show's trademark obstacle, four very large red spheres in sequence that must be traversed from a running start, with failures often resulting in odd-angle rejections), the "Sweeper", the "Dizzy Dummy" or the "Dreadmill".

The exchanges between the two hosts is often a subplot of episodes themselves, with Anderson playing it mostly straight as a play-by-play man while Henson offers up off-the-wall inanities and non sequiturs as color commentary.

Jill Wagner offers additional features reactions, and also provides interviews with the contestants filmed before their turn begins.

These interviews tend to emphasize bizarre aspects of contestants' personalities, with Wagner making facial commentary as the conversation proceeds.

Though slight variations are used in each episode, contestants wear wetsuits and they begin by either sliding down a water ramp or being launched by a giant catapult or blob into the course, swimming to the first obstacle.

The player with the fastest time on the course is declared the "champion" of the episode and is awarded the show's grand prize of $50,000.

The Wipeout Zone often brings competitors to the brink of exhaustion, especially when they have to swim back to a starting point to retry a failed obstacle, unlike the first round.

[27] As the season progressed, Nielsen Media Research put it at the top of the 18–49 demographic, slightly outpaced by America's Got Talent.

[32] On January 6, 2011, the first season of Winter Wipeout premiered with the series' highest ratings ever, beating the 8.00 p.m. competition in the coveted 18–49 demographic and many other key demos.

He reportedly wanted to sell the show as Fear Factor meets America's Funniest Home Videos.

It took full advantage of the Kinect remote and has ragdoll wipeouts and different rounds from the Wii and DS version, such as Bruiseball.

The new game is described as "Offering updated, outrageous course designs across all platforms with obstacles and effects taken straight from the show's summer and winter seasons.

Players must navigate around snow, ice, foam, and fan-favorite obstacles like the Sucker Punch and Big Balls; which are making their triumphant returns alongside more than 50 others".

[55] Android Endemol Shine North America has sold the show's format to more than 40 territories and has created two obstacle courses in Argentina for those international editions.