In this week's "Sunday Reboot," Malcolm ponders why Apple TV doesn't do game shows, and if it ever will properly work competition-based shows into its streaming service.
Anyone paying a subscription expects to get their money's worth from their monthly outlay, especially when it comes to streaming services. I occasionally look at the collection that I pay for each month, and if I haven't watched it enough in the last few months, it gets cancelled for a while.
This does help save a bit of money, but the one that I simply cannot do this to is Apple TV. That's primarily because it's in my Apple One subscription and I use everything else in the package a lot.
Since getting rid of Apple TV isn't an option, I have to come up with reasons to actually watch stuff on it. That is surprisingly hard, because I'm not really a narrative-driven guy.
With the exception of Ted Lasso and rare viewings of light sci-fi, I can't really get into the content Apple TV provides in a major way.
I believe the problem, at least for my particular viewing habits, is that Apple doesn't do game shows.
It does do sports, certainly, and that would be considered competition in nature. But I'm discounting them as gameshows and reality competition shows are a different thing entirely.
I am very much a trivia nut, and I can get behind people doing tasks and competing in challenges. While I prefer "shiny floor" studio game shows, I'm not against reality competition shows either, and I even seek out the weird and wild ones, too.
My favorite is still Release the Hounds, which had people take on horror-themed tasks before trying to outrun dogs for money. As in real dogs chasing after and taking down the contestants.
A close second is the much lighter and family-friendly "Chef and My Fridge" on Netflix.
This is all stuff that Apple TV shies away from almost entirely. You certainly won't be able to find an Apple Original trivia show on the service at all.
Three Whammies
Apple has, so far, produced three competition shows in its long-form programming history. Just three, and that's if you stretch the definition a tiny bit.
None of them was what you could refer to as a smash hit at all.
The earliest, which predates Apple TV, was 2017's Planet of the Apps. While Apple TV didn't exist, it premiered on CNBC and was also available on Apple Music and iTunes.
It was a painfully obvious idea. A Shark Tank-esque show promoting app development by making people pitch apps that they thought could make them tons of money.
It was also a pretty bad show to watch, with developers trying to make Gary Vaynerchuk, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Will.I.Am care about their "great" idea. Really, the less remembered about it, the better.
Apple's second real attempt, first for Apple TV itself, was My Kind of Country in 2023, which attempted to take on The Voice. Country singers around the world were gradually eliminated until one person won $100,000 and promotion on Apple Music.
This, again, makes sense for Apple to create, since it does the whole Apple Music thing.
But it evidently wasn't enough of a hit to warrant a second series. It hasn't officially been cancelled, but it's also not been renewed either.
Door number three is Kpopped, which again is music, but barely counts as a competition show. Capitalizing on the K-pop wave, it combined established groups with Western artists, gave them 48 hours, and made them perform to an audience.
There is a vote to determine who did the best, so there is technically a competition aspect at play. But really, it's an excuse to show established Western artists like Megan Thee Stallion, the Spice Girls, Kesha, and Kylie singing alongside K-pop groups like Billie and Itzy.
It's basically fluff and an attempt to cash in on a global trend. Again, can't really fault Apple for trying.
What we can fault Apple for is not trying enough.
Rivals
Pretty much every major streaming service has some form of game show or competition reality show on its current roster. I also don't just mean shows from their imported back catalogs, but originals commissioned by the streaming services themselves.
Amazon's got the Mr Beast-fronted Beast Games along with Last One Laughing, the James Bond-themed 007: Road to a Million, and a season of Pop Culture Jeopardy.
Netflix is far more prolific and is also very successful with its own content. You have skill-based shows like Blown Away and Is It Cake?, and physical competition shows such as Physical 100 and Floor Is Lava.
Its more cerebral content includes The Devil's Plan, Million Dollar Secret, and the service-switching Pop Culture Jeopardy. Offbeat reality competition is also there with the decent Zombieverse, the middling Squid Game: The Challenge, and the throw-away Snowflake Mountain.
Disney+ is a bit of a different story, in part due to it pulling content from TV channels and studios it owns, which typically go on normal broadcast television first. The original programming side of things is a bit thin, but there was Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, which was an attempt at a kids' gameshow based on the film franchise.
It didn't really work that well, but at least Disney tried.
Game show economics
Game shows and reality shows have a lot of aspects that studios like. That includes the relatively low per-episode cost to produce a season of a show.
For a studio quiz, you only need one small set, which is really cheap if it's a long-running show. Reality competition shows need a lot more, but far from the scale of what is needed for a high-budget drama.
Staffing is also relatively cheap compared to scripted programming, as the prize contestants fight over can be less than the total cost of a bunch of actors and extras.
Studio quizzes are also cheaper in terms of crew costs, as you can get multiple episodes in the can in a day. Short production times save money.
The economics of a game show, even one with a big six or seven-figure cash prize, make it that the cost of production is lower overall. If you're careful, you can create multiple game shows for the same cost as one mid-size dramatic production.
That reality makes it easy for someone like Netflix to churn out multiple competition shows, in the hope that a few become hits. It's worked for decades on broadcast television, and also for Netflix.
Quality, not quantity
While I can wish for Apple to do some decent game show-like content on its streaming platform, it's something that probably won't ever happen.
Since the beginning of Apple TV+, years before losing the plus, it had a remit to offer high-quality programming to viewers. In one early interview, then VP of Software and Services Eddy Cue was adamant that Apple was working on "creating the best" content instead of "creating the most."
This is a strategy that has served Apple TV very well. Over the years, it has become known as a dramatic powerhouse, winning many awards and accolades in the process.
It even recently led to Cue, now SVP of Services and Health, to be named the 2026 Entertainment Person of the Year at Cannes Lions.
Evidently, he knows what he's doing.
Apple is not in the business of being cheap with production. It does not believe in the shotgun approach to content, as it strives to make everything that comes through its doors a hit.
Unless there's a sudden turnaround in strategy from Cue or someone else in Apple's leadership team, it's a policy that it will maintain for the foreseeable future.
Game shows, sadly, have no place on Apple TV. No question about it.
Last week's Sunday Reboot discussed Beats beating FIFA at the advertising game and GymKit on iPhone.
