A new game show with a dog-eat-dog mind set that’s hosted by a 1980s icon, Rob Lowe who managed to slide-in a plug for his other FOX show “9-1-1: Lone Star,”  had it’s premiere on Tuesday night.  From NBC’s  “The Wall” game show that builds people up, to one that tears them down (so to speak) on FOX.  “The Floor” pits 81 players, or contestants, against each other who have to one-up each other on the trivia knowledge of each contestants’ “expertise.”

When a contestant doesn’t live up to their own hype, and loses their Duel, they get sent home and the successor opponent takes ownership of not only the losing contestant’s floor tile, but also their category!  It’s a slippery slope when they don’t know the category at all.  Just don’t tell everyone in the room, who’s out for your head, that you don’t know the category as we saw one player do exactly that in the first episode.  The grand prize is $250,000 (for winning the whole show).

The candid voice-overs from contestants, along with a seemingly audience-in-a-can sounds, and the set design feels much like “The Weakest Link.”  Fans of that show will also be hooked on this one.  It’s also a game of playing your opponents very cunningly.  The big winner of the night gave off non-threatening vibes in the beginning.  However, he proved to be just the opposite.

THE FLOOR: Rob Lowe. ©2023 FOX Media LLC. Cr: Lorraine O’Sullivan/FOX

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED:

A contestant gets randomly selected by an automated “Randomizer,” or really who we think are the producers.  When the player is selected, they challenge a neighboring contestant.  This is someone who directly shares sides of their square tile of the floor with them.  They player who is chosen, must select a neighbor for a “Duel” according to their category that they claim to be an expert in.  The winner of the Duel takes control of their opponent’s Floor.  The losing contestant goes home.  There are six Duels total in an episode.

One of the contestants, Darin, is a pro wrestler. Another one promises to be an encyclopedia of “useless information.”  Others have the categories that include:  Geography, 80s TV Shows, Best Picture List…and more.  The more Floor that a contestant can “conquer,”  the more of a target they become.  At the end of the season, whomever has most of the Floor will win the $250,000.  So, this is a game that has one ultimate winner of the whole show, and NOT a winner each episode.  Also, the person who has the most territory of the Floor each night, does earn a monetary prize of $20,000.

The first contestant that was chosen by the “Randomizer” was an expert on “Veggies.”  Her name was Sid, and she’s a CEO of a Staffing company.  She challenged her neighbor, Zai, who’s an expert on “Tools.”  Sid suspected that Zai didn’t really know much about tools.  This was a “don’t judge a book by its cover” moment.  Thus, the tool girl, Zai, won!

The Challenger starts each Duel, and it’s a game of guessing photos.  The two players go back in forth while a 45 second clock counts down.  When one of them doesn’t know the answer, they can say “pass” and the next image comes up.  With each wrong answer, three seconds gets deducted off their clock.  The player whose clock runs out first loses the Duel.

After winning her duel, the Tool expert had the option to either challenge another player, or stop and go back to the Floor.  Another caveat about playing this game is that whoever a player beats out after they’ve won their Duel, inherits the losing contestant’s category.  So, now Zai had the category of “Veggies.”   She chose to stay at the podium and challenge an expert in “Cars.”

He won his Duel against her and inherited her category of Veggies.  He chose to return to the Floor with the piece of Floor he won during that Duel.  The categories of his neighbors who he chose NOT to duel were:  Fashion Icons, One Hit Wonders, Toys, Birds.

THE FLOOR: L-R: Contestant Kathleen, Host Rob Lowe and Contestant Jasper in the season premiere of THE FLOOR ©2023 FOX Media LLC. Cr: Lorraine O’Sullivan/FOX

THE IRONY OF IT ALL:

The Randomizer was activated for a new category, it was an expert in “bugs,” Tory, who had to choose her Duel neighbor.  Tory chose the “A Lister” category played by Nataila who ended up winning their Duel.  She inherited “Bugs” category and decided to go back to the Floor rather than challenge another contestant.

The Randomizer chose Kat next who was an expert in the “Dogs” category.  We’re sure the producer saw the irony in her name and most likely put her up to choosing “Dogs” as her category.  

Kat chose contestant Jasper whose category was “Songs About Places.” Jasper won his Duel by default after Kat had to pass on a slew of trivia questions that she did not know the answers to, thus her clock ran out.  After it was over, Jasper incriminated himself by telling Rob Lowe, and the whole room of opponents, that he didn’t know anything about the category he just inherited from Kat, Dogs!

Lowe pointed out that, that was a strategy reveal.  Because potential challengers now KNOW that he doesn’t know the “Dogs” category! Jasper stayed for another round by challenging a young contestant claiming to be an expert in Books.  He won that Duel too! That made him tied with the other main player of the night, Greg.  They both had three pieces of the Floor each.

Jasper was the night’s first big player because he stayed to challenge another player in another Duel off!  The next category he undertook was “Slogans” expert named Zane who told Lowe he’s a stunt man.  Zane claimed to have been “everywhere” and to really know his slogans.. ah…well that turned out to not be true.  

Jasper proved to be a heavy hitter because he won the Duel against Slogan expert Zane too.  This made Jasper the contestant with the most floor territory of the night so far.  He went back to the Floor, and wouldn’t you know it, one of his neighbors, who’s an expert in “Rock Stars,” got chosen by the Randomizer!  Wow, well…we were all expecting that.  Surely after his big reveal about not knowing anything about dogs.  His neighbor chose Jasper for the Duel.

THE FLOOR: Contestant Jasper. ©2023 FOX Media LLC. Cr: Lorraine O’Sullivan/FOX

They had to look at photos of dogs and name the breed of each dog during the Duel.  Jasper won and at the end of episode one, 74 players remained.  Will Jasper challenge another Duel, or go back to “The Floor”?  To be continued.

“The Floor” airs on Tuesday nights at 9/8 pm Central on FOX network.