So...Double Dare's back. With Marc Summers...sort of. And it's...pretty OK.
I watched the 3 episodes that seem available at the moment, and so far the show seems to be off to a good start. The show has a good rhythm to it, Liza's an excellent host when it comes to the energy, and Marc Summers is classy as ever as the co-host/announcer.
Too bad the pilot was so terrible. Weak physical challenges based largely around water, almost no messiness, and an incredibly lame obstacle course did not start the show off well. However, there must have been some studio notes to the tune of "THIS IS DOUBLE DARE, DAMNIT!", because the slime & the muck appear in huge amounts & often in the 2nd & 3rd episodes. The obstacle course also received some alternative stops that just fit Double Dare better.
The show still has some issues. I feel like the questions are almost insultingly easy for a show that's supposed to be pushing the physical challenges, but the show has regressed a bit to 2 teams of very young children, so it makes sense. What I think is a larger issue is that it just doesn't feel like the Obstacle course was balanced well. Of the 3 teams that ran the course, 2 got stuck on one obstacle, as typical for Double Dare, and lost.
However, the 3rd was finding those flags almost as soon as they reached the obstacle, and they still didn't make it.
It feels like the obstacles might need to tweaked a bit to make them take less time to complete.
So far, so good. They even kept the running gag where all the prizes are incredibly lame until you reach the grand prize, including karaoke machines just like in the good ol' days.