Underplayed Gems

America's Toughest Jobs (2008)

America's Toughest Jobs poster
Genre
reality television
Country
United States
Length
1 season, 10 episodes
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Contestants face a series of dangerous real-world jobs and are judged by actual workers in those fields. The worst performers compete in a final challenge to avoid elimination. The winner takes home the combined first-year salaries of all the jobs featured.

gruelingcompetitiveintensehigh-stakesearnestphysicaldramaticpressure-filled

What happens

America's Toughest Jobs is a reality television show that lasted one season and aired on NBC. It pitted contestants against each other as they attempted a series of difficult and dangerous jobs. The prize was the sum of the salaries that would be earned by people doing these jobs in their first year. The show's creator and executive producer was Thom Beers, notable for creating shows such as Deadliest Catch and Monster Garage. Some of the jobs he chose to be featured on America's Toughest Jobs were featured on shows he previously created. The host was Josh Temple, a character actor who had minor roles in shows such as Will & Grace and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In each episode, contestants took part in tasks associated with a job, and were supervised and evaluated by workers or employers in that business. After spending time on the job, the supervisors selected one or more top employees for praise, and selected the employees who had the worst performances (the bottom four in the first five episodes, and the bottom two thereafter). Those employees were required to compete head-to-head in an additional challenge to determine who would be eliminated. For example, in the gold digging episode, the bottom four contestants were required to spend additional time digging for gold with the contestant who found the least amount eliminated. Once there were four contestants remaining, timed challenges were held for three of the season's toughest jobs with the contestant who had the slowest time at each eliminated until a winner was determined. At the end of each episode, an information screen was shown that detailed what the eliminated contestant decided to do after the show. Ben Coleman was named the winner of season one on October 25, 2008. The results were accidentally posted on NBC's website several hours before the show aired. On March 13, 2009, it was confirmed that the series had been canceled and would not be returning for a second season. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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