Disney Channel Games

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In the endless pursuit of entertainment or relieving boredom the human race has created a vast assortment of sporting events. Eventually, with the invention of television and its subsequent rise to the entertainment forefront those sporting events began to be shown on the “boob tube”. However, also gaining in popularity were game shows and ,in more modern times, the game show has given way to the “reality show” . It was only a matter of time before someone decided to combine all three in an attempt at mega entertainment. There are the Olympics, the special Olympics, and then the extra special Olympics of sorts in which a large corporation that profits from parading an endless wave of “in the moment” celebrities across a television channel at a certain time have run out of plot ideas and have decided to make a reality sports competition. A prime example of the mixing of celebrity and sports, a baby version of sorts breeding the future casts of The Surreal Life and Road Rules challenges was THE DISNEY GAMES. The Disney corporation and its television executives have indeed been responsible for exposing us to the occasional break out pop-flavored talent. We can thank them for Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguliera, and Lindsey Lohan to name a few. The sales associated with those few names alone are a corporate executives wet dream. So it is not too hard to figure out how an idea such as the Disney Channel Games came to fruition. The Disney Channel Games were a series of televised events where two teams designated by colors such as red and blue, faced off for points. The catch to this show stole from all the pre-mentioned categories of entertainment, combining sports events with game show type events and mixing in “real” celebrities. Scouring all of their other programming Disney chose child stars to participate in the events. Now a kid did not have to wait for their favorite show to come on in order to see their beloved celebrities one at a time, now they could view them all in one place at the same time. However the interaction did not stop there! The Disney Channel Games also took advantage of internet media access. Kids at home watching the program could participate in on-line games and give the winning points to their favorite team. Yes, the Disney Channel Games were able to get kids to sit in front of their computers to be exposed to advertising and such while at the same time watching hamster ball races, dunk booths, and intense rock, paper, scissors competitions on their televisions. The Disney Channel Games were run as a sort of test mini-series. One can only guess that there are bigger longer projects in mind. The Disney channel will always have a never ending crop of soon to be “former child stars” and the Disney Channel Games seems like the perfect device for exploiting that for pennies while the getting of the pennies is good.