In Raid The Cage, hosted by Damon Wayans Jr. and Jeannie Mai, two teams of two compete to see who can snatch up more valuable prizes in a massive “cage,” which is actually the floor of the lower level of the show’s two-tier stage. On the floor, there’s an assortment of prizes that are big, like ATVs, kayaks, exercise machines, golf carts and more, and small, like jewelry, designer handbags and clothes, computers, phones, tablets and the like. Scattered about the floor are blue boxes containing “secret” prizes, including a big prize. In the first episode, that “mega mystery box” contains a trip to Antigua.
Opening Shot: Co-host Jeannie Mai tells the audience that “tonight, two teams compete in a series of mental and physical challenges.
The Gist: There are three rounds where the two teams compete; in each round, a team has a “gabber” and a “grabber.” The “gabber” has to do a bit of word association, picking a phrase from a list on the screen associated with a phrase given by Wayans. Every correct answer, up to 10, adds time for the “grabber” on the clock. Then the grabber sets to work doing, as the show’s slogan says, “get in, get out, get rich.” They grab everything they can without knowing until the very end how much time is left. Once they leave the cage, they’re done. And if they’re “locked in” the cage, i.e. the door closes before they can get out with the loot, the team loses all they grabbed in that round.
In the subsequent rounds, the prizes get bigger and more valuable, and some have physical challenges attached. But the grabber also ends up getting more time per correct answer from the gabber.
Whichever team ends the three rounds with the most valuable haul gets to keep that haul no matter what; the other team goes home with nothing. The winning team gets a chance to “Beat The Cage” in the bonus round; they take turns in the cage, where three massive prizes, including a car, are paired with physical challenges. There is an assortment of smaller prizes, as well. If the pair can get out of the cage before the doors close and have gathered up over $50,000 worth of stuff, they have “beaten the cage” and keep what they got; otherwise, the “cage has beaten” them, and they only go home with what they got in the first three rounds.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Raid The Cage is almost like Double Dare for adults, with less messiness but a whole lot more at stake.
Our Take: Raid The Cage, based on an Israeli game show which debuted a decade ago, is about two things: Gathering loot and accumulating time to gather that loot. That’s it. The two teams that compete in the first three rounds are really competing against themselves more than each other, trying to gather up as much and as valuable stuff as possible and get out of that cage before the clock goes off. If there’s any strategy employed for one team to get past the other, especially in the final round, we didn’t see it.
Despite that, the show is a ton of fun, mainly because the sight of people piling things on golf carts or kayaks and watching them struggle to push or drag them out of the cage before the doors close is an attention-grabber. And, as the rounds go on and physical challenges are added for the bigger prizes, you start to wonder if the grabber is spending too much time on the physical challenge and will either not exit the cage or exit with a much smaller haul than they could have if they just grabbed stuff.
Wayans is fine as host; he has a decent energy level that matches the pace of the show, and keeps the “look at me” stuff to a minimum. Mai’s role is to be with the grabber outside the cage and do play-by-play, and she’s utilized a lot better here than she is/was on Holey Moley, where she was the sideline reporter. She cheers the contestants on with sincerity and seems genuinely surprised at some of the things they resort to in order to get through those doors in time.
The idea that the show is basically embracing the idea that it’s not some sort of trivia contest, just a physical challenge to grab as much stuff as a person can is really what drives our enjoyment of the show. The less gabbing and more grabbing they show, the better.
Sex and Skin: None, except for seeing all of the prizes on that floor, like it’s a demented version of the ’70s and ’80s “shopping” era of Wheel of Fortune.
Parting Shot: Wayans hoarsely recites the show’s tag line when he says goodbye: “Get in, get out, get rich!”
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the contestants: A brother and sister on one side and a couple on the other. They are willing to possibly sprain things and get bruised up in order to get out of that cage on time. We see one contestant stick an arm through the door as it closes and another literally dive through the door as it shuts.
Most Pilot-y Line: We want to know what the huge teddy bears on the prize floor are all about. Mannequins on the prize floor have multiple prizes draped on them, but the huge bears? Are the prizes stuffed inside? Who is going to grab one of those bears?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Raid The Cage is all about gathering loot, no more and no less. And because of that, it’s a lot of fun to watch.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.