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EXCLUSIVE: More than a decade after it went off the air, Nickelodeon’s 1990s game show Figure It Out is making a comeback. The cable network has ordered 40 brand new episodes of the family-friendly game show to begin production in April in Los Angeles for a premiere later this year. Every Figure It Out episode features a panel of celebrities trying to guess kid contestants’ unique talents and skills by asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions while being bombarded by messy visual and tactile clues. If, after three rounds, the panel still can’t figure out the kid’s feat, the contestant takes home the grand prize. Each game culminates in the reveal of the talent with an in-studio demo. “Figure It Out is a show that celebrates kids and their wonderful and often bizarre talents” said Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon’s president of development and original programming. “In this internet age where kids are expressing themselves online, it feels timely to give them a TV platform to showcase those talents in a uniquely Nickelodeon way.”
Created by Kevin Kay and Magda Liolis, Figure It Out originally aired on Nickelodeon for four seasons from July 1997 to December 1999 and was hosted by Olympic gold medalist swimmer Summer Sanders. The panel was a mix of Nick personalities and celebrities and included Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes, Aaron Carter, Chris Jericho, Coolio, Jack Hanna, Sherman Helmsley, Evander Holyfield, Joe Namath, Julius Erving, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mike O’Malley and Mya, among several others. The show also spawned 2 offshoots, Figure it Out: Family Style and Figure it Out: Wild Style.
The reboot of Figure It Out, which will be executive produced by Eileen Braun and Magda Liolis, continues the 1990s’ boom on Nickelodeon. The midnight-4 AM block The ’90s Are All That, which features reruns of 1990s Nick sitcoms, has done quite well on Nickelodeon’s sibling Teen Nick. Figure Out also is the latest in a string of original game show franchises developed and launched by Nickelodeon in the past 25 years. The first game show that aired on the network was Double Dare in 1986, featuring Nick’s now signatory slime. It was followed by Finders Keepers and Super Sloppy Double Dare (’87), Family Double Dare, (’88), Make the Grade and Think Fast (’89), Wild and Crazy Kids (’90), Get the Picture (’91), GUTS and Nick Arcade (’92), Legends of the Hidden Temple (’93), Global GUTS, (’95), Figure it Out (’97), You’re On! and Figure it Out: Family Style (’98), Figure it Out: Wild Style (’99), Double Dare 2000 (’00), and Nick Robot Wars and Scaredy Camp (’02). The network’s most recent entries in the genre were Family GUTS (’08), BrainSurge (‘09) and Family BrainSurge (’11). Here is a clip from the original Figure It Out:
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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I loved watching this with my nephew and niece; can’t wait to forward this to them!
i think they should revive all that! imagine if they got REAL talented kids, the ratings would go through the roof! everyone misses the old nick, so at least they’re trying to do SOMETHING.
How could you not mention Lori Beth in this article. She was in almost as many episodes as summer sanders. They should have brought her back as the host. But noooooo you can have fat people on tv… Lori beth was figure it out.
Out of all the shows they could have chosen to revive, they picked Figure It Out?
Bring back Legends of the Hidden Temple, PLEASE. Along with a grandfather clause about kids back then who are now adults and were not able to be on the show, and how they can audition as adults.
Yes, please!
Legends of the Hidden Temple ALL THE WAY. (With also the addition of GUTS!)
Maybe I got too old, but Figure It Out was lame even when I was 14. It was a mimicry of the old school game shows where famous stars would guess the guest… but what they misread was the joy in that was in the personality and off-scriptedness of the stars, NOT the guests. When Figure It Out came along, everyone, from the All That! stars to guest stars to Summer Sanders, were all incredibly and overly scripted, it was boring and uninteresting. And that was with “stars” of 15 years ago. Can you imagine how much worse they’ll be now? Nick has so many other options. The only way this format becomes interesting is if they go Full Match Game and hand out the liquor with ease. And like that’ll happen. Ha.
Or they can get Jackie Gleason to host. He’ll do a episode or two and then tear down the set and apologize for the show.
Kids my age still reminisce about ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’ and ‘Figure It Out’, not to mention all of Nickelodeon’s scripted content from that era.
Crazy to think that there was a time where kids shows were developed for entertainment value, rather than to sell songs on iTunes.
I know right!?!?
Here’s the question… when will they order 40 new episodes of You Can’t Do That On Television?
ASAP
@Michelle, I actually agree with you 100%. I was initially super excited to see that ‘Figure It Out’ was coming back, but that’s really only because when you’re starving, you’ll take crumbs. ‘Legends’ and ‘Wild and Crazy Kids’ are two of the all- time great unscripted shows. Ask anyone from the age of 24-30, Nick shows literally unite a generation and taught us how to process the world. You think we read books back then? Heck no, just got home and watched Nick. And @College Student, scripted 90′s Nick shows like ‘Salute Your Shorts’ and ‘Pete and Pete’ fall into the EPIC category as well. These shows are the Francis Ford Coppola classics of our generation! Airing the ’90′s Are All That’ block on The N proves their timelessness and the sheer fact that Kenan is even on SNL is a salute to his artistry when he had Kel and Nick was the best thing on TV. Kenan and Kel were kids’ version of Farley and Spade. Think about it, neither is funny without their counterpart, these are all cultural facts people!
As a 90′s kid, this brings back fond memories of my childhood. Hopefully they can recapture the same magic for today’s audience.
I like Michelle’s grandfather clause idea. Bring back LEGENDS too!
Co-sign on the earlier comment about Legends of the Hidden Temple. Why they chose this show that no one remembers and not that brilliant masterpiece is beyond me.
Also, as a 32 year old, I am only slightly ashamed to admit that if they brought back Snick, I would probably DVR all of it.
GUTS. Legends of the Hidden Temple. >>> all the rest…
Bring back Summer Sanders dammit.
Know a kid with a quirky talent to be featured on Figure It Out!? Email amy.cummings(@)mtvnmix.com
I know a kid named Danny Tamberelli who should host. Does that count?
Kevin Kopelow (the stage manager from All That) made that show, and he’s now at Disney running Austin & Ally. Without him, The New Figure It Out! will only last five minutes, five minutes!
Give Matt Bennett his own TV show.
I know… dreamy AND funny!
He’s the best part of an otherwise awful show.
It won’t be the same without Summer Sanders.
Nellie, you forgot two Nickelodeon game shows: “Think Fast!” (1989) & “What Would You Do?” (1993)
And I echo the sentiment of the other commenters – Nickelodeon should delve deeper into their game show vault for a reboot, at least further back than 1997. I really miss their old cable channel Nickelodeon Games and Sports. It was a treat to rediscover all those old game shows, a real stroll down memory lane; Viacom should have kept that channel on the air.
Whoops! I read the article twice & missed the “Think Fast!” Inclusion. Sorry, Nellie!
I’m extremely excited for the “Figure It Out” reboot. It was my favorite game show on Nickelodeon during the ’90s (though I also loved “Legend of The Hidden Temple” and “Global Guts”). I hope Summer Sanders returns to host, along with several of the original panelists, who have seen a popularity spike since many of the shows that made them famous have been resurrected by TeenNick. I honestly cannot wait to watch this!
I remember this show! And I agree, Legends of the Hidden Temple was awesome. They should bring that one back!
That show Fort (something french sounding) reminds me of legends of the hidden temple.. with the different team color animals competing for keys… grant it they don’t go thru a stupid maze. but that was overated anyway…..
what was the game show where they had video games and they had to play the video games and at the end they were “in the video game” that would be a nice reboot.. especially with todays kinect technology they could be in a decent video game.
that was called nick arcade, but it wouldn’t be good now since everybody can already do all those things. and the arcade isn’t even a thing anymore. remember this was back when if you wantedd to play video games, you had to go to an arcade. home systems weren’t around yet. It was good back then, but it’s outdated now.
Yeah, Kenan & Kel were definitely an awesome team but don’t sell Kenan short on his own. He’s one of my all-time favorites on SNL.
Excited that “Figure It Out” is coming back. Hopefully this reboot will be better than what they did with “Guts”. Now that reboot was a major disappointment. They better get Summer Sanders to host it again and bring back the same stage too lol.
I’d love to see The Amanda Show and All That, too
This is so exciting, I’m only 17 but the best years of my life were watching guts and legands on nick gas, that’s what they really need to bring back, they always had stuff about about people being famous for real accomplishment not like the stuff the do today, if nick would bring back more stuff like this ratings would go through the roof, we need shows like all that back, im tired of watching things that are so sheltered, yes I’m a teen, but that doesn’t mean I have to watch something that a baby wants to watch, I miss the old nick and am willing to do anything to get it back.
This is the best news I’ve ever heard since All That was cancelled in 2005!! I’m now 21 and I’m looking forward to see how they’re going to remake Figure it Out!
I wonder what date will it be aired?
YEAH!! Legends should DEFINITLEY be remade, TOTALLY! It was the best TV show in the WORLD, LITERALLY!! And I think they should put Dee Bradely Baker (since he voiced Olmec in Legends of the Hidden Temple) or ANY actor or actress that voiced sombody in Phineas and Ferb in the new Figure it Out. I they do that, Figure it out will be in my Top 18 favorite TV shows.
This is very exciting and will be fun to watch