Category: TV Review
The Travel Channel has created some great shows. Programs such as No Reservations, Bizarre Foods, Man v. Food, and anything that Samantha Brown pops up in have become staples on the network.
Unfortunately, Travel Channel has also created some programs that stink worse than Zimmern's sworn enemy the durian. One of those new bombs is 101 Challenges. Oddly enough, the Travel Channel apparently knows this show is bad: they have never aired a promotion for it (as opposed to inescapable promo spots for Bourdain's show or Bert the Conqueror), and its web site has no informational or descriptive listing for it...not to mention the fact that they only have "episode 1" but no "episode 2" on the schedule.
There is a good reason that the Travel Channel is going out of its way to not call attention to 101 Challenges: this show is woeful. In fact, I will be genuinely surprised if episode two gets to air.
The plot? Consider crossing Jackass with Borat combined with all the sweet personality of Dabney Coleman's most unlikeable character (pick your least favorite, he is a master of playing jerks). Two men travel around the world, doing things that people dare them to. I wish I could provide a better description; unfortunately, the show is so horrible that even this is too kind an assessment of the premise.
Perhaps the Travel Channel gives us garbage such as this because they think we are tired of watching Most Unique McDonalds or RV Crazy! for the 600th time this month. Yes, the repeats are boring; however, the test pattern is better than this show.
