Just last week, the Discovery Channel officially announced it’s green-lighting a brand-new show, “Unchained Reaction” – a 6-part show starring two of my small-screen heroes, Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage.
The show revolves around pitting two teams against each other in a Rube Goldberg-style build-off for a period of 5-days. The winning team will be judged by Hyneman and Savage and a special guest-judge for each of the six episodes.
Personally, as a huge fan of Mythbusters AND Rube Goldberg machines, this is a no-brainer win-win for me!
Discovery’s official press-release on the show:
(Los Angeles, Ca.) – Discovery Channel announces UNCHAINED REACTION, a new series executive produced by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MYTHBUSTERS. The duo also serve as judges for the six-part series, which pits two teams of varying backgrounds against each other to build an elaborate chain reaction contraption. But they’re not creating a mere string of dominoes – teams must utilize ingenuity, innovation and know-how to build contraptions on a massive scale. UNCHAINED REACTION is set to premiere on Discovery Channel in March 2012.
Each week, two teams made up of artists, rocket scientists, animatronic specialists, engineers and even your average Joe, are provided with identical sets of tools and materials and given five days to complete a series of mechanisms based on a specific theme. It’s the ultimate build-off pressure cooker, where refined mechanical movements, pyrotechnics and large-scale destruction are encouraged. Making a refrigerator a pendulum? Totally possible on UNCHAINED REACTION. Catapults? Flying saucers? Guillotines? Anything goes as long as they trigger the next link in the chain.
Teamwork and outside-the-box thinking are what it will take to be the UNCHAINED REACTION winner, as teams compete to see who can achieve the most impressive build in such a short time. Each week, Jamie and Adam are joined by a new guest judge to decide which team impressed them the most with their innovation, energy and how much spectacle they can create. “The spirit of UNCHAINED REACTION is at the intersection of art and engineering, and Adam and Jamie are the masters at celebrating teamwork and gee-whiz wonder at how the world works,” said Eileen O’Neill, Group President, Discovery Channel and TLC. “We are thrilled to bring this new series to our always curious and engaged Discovery Channel audience.”
Said Savage, “We wanted to craft a show that puts the process of problem solving and ingenuity front and center, and we’ve done exactly that with UNCHAINED REACTION.” Hyneman continued, “The innovative solutions and boundless energy demonstrated by the contestants surprised us every single time.”
UNCHAINED REACTION is produced for Discovery Channel by Discovery Studios and BermanBraun. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are executive producers. For Discovery Studios, Daniel Soiseth is executive producer and Derek Wan is co-executive producer; for BermanBraun, Lloyd Braun, Gail Berman and Gene Stein are executive producers, and Jared Heinke is co-executive producer. David Pritikin and Tracy Rudolph are executive producers for Discovery Channel.
Here’s hoping we see innovative creations like this throughout the show:
I’m excited about the concept – should be a lot of fun. Adam & Jamie need to get Kari involved. I just like having her on screen