1986–1989 , host of
Double Dare from 1986 to 1993 In the mid-1980s,
Nickelodeon was approached by production and consulting groups with the idea of doing a game show for children, a first for the network. Nickelodeon conducted focus groups and concluded that children enjoyed watching game shows with adults, but they did not have a game show targeted at their demographic. Dee LaDuke, Robert Mittenthal, Michael Klinghoffer, and Geoffrey Darby worked to develop a new format, basing it on a combination of
trivia,
truth or dare, and the board game
Mouse Trap. Initial candidates to host the program included
Soupy Sales, host of children's
variety shows in the 1950s and 1960s, and comedian
Dana Carvey. After Nickelodeon determined Sales to be too old for the role, and Carvey was offered a chance to audition for
Saturday Night Live, the search for a host continued. Producers viewed over 1,000 applicants from
New York or
Los Angeles. First attending a tryout in lieu of a friend, and later passing multiple auditions, television
warm-up comedian
Marc Summers was one of two finalists advancing to a final audition. Each hosted a mock game for Nickelodeon to make an ultimate decision on who would host
Double Dare. The producers felt the way Summers ended the game by leading into a commercial break was more professional and he was hired for the position in the first week of September 1986. Because focus groups showed that the audience thought he was more than 10 years younger than he actually was, Summers, then 34 years old, was obligated by Nickelodeon for years to not mention his age publicly. In need of an announcer,
Double Dare producers were made aware of
Philadelphia-area radio host John Harvey, known on-air as Harvey, whose
Harvey in the Morning program on
WIOQ had been canceled months earlier. He accepted the offer to be announcer of the program. Robin Marrella and Dave Shikiar were the two permanent stage assistants when the program began. All the original
Double Dare music was composed by
Edd Kalehoff. , 1987 Production originated at the studios of
PBS affiliate
WHYY-TV in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. WHYY offered Nickelodeon their newly opened production wing to use, and Nickelodeon felt Philadelphia was a better location to initially produce
Double Dare because of its lower production costs, instead of cities like New York or Los Angeles where national television production is more common.
Double Dare premiered on Nickelodeon on October 6, 1986. New episodes aired weekdays at 5:30p.m.
ET during the original series' run on Nickelodeon. After the success of the first 65 episodes, a second 65-episode season was ordered.
Super Sloppy Double Dare featured gameplay identical to the original format; however, physical challenges and obstacles were designed to make a bigger mess. Viewers were encouraged to send in a postcard with their contact information and could win a prize if their card was selected, and a team performing a physical challenge completed the stunt successfully. Episodes of
Super Sloppy Double Dare were taped at Unitel Studio in New York City before production moved back to WHYY-TV. In July 1987, pilots hosted by
Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner) were produced by
Viacom for two possible versions of
Double Dare with adult players: one pairing celebrities with contestants, and another with married couples. Neither concept advanced to series. By November 1987,
Fox announced they had partnered with Viacom to purchase the distribution rights for new episodes of the program in
syndication. New episodes of
Double Dare aired on independent stations and Fox affiliates beginning on February 22, 1988. There were 130 first-run syndication episodes in 1988. , where
Super Sloppy Double Dare was filmed in 1989 A 13-episode Saturday night edition titled
Family Double Dare aired on Fox from April 3 to July 23, 1988. Teams on this version consisted of four family members, most often a mother, father, and two children. The budget was increased, and the prize total featured during the obstacle course was larger than that featured on the Nickelodeon series. A further 13 episodes of
Family Double Dare were then ordered, but Fox canceled the series shortly before production was to begin because of "creative differences." On January 5, 1989, production began on a new version of
Super Sloppy Double Dare from Philadelphia at WHYY-TV, continuing in syndication. The series premiered on January 22, 1989. The second half of the series was produced at
Universal Studios in
Orlando,
Florida, with production beginning in April 1989. 55 episodes were taped for the first half, and for the second half, 40 were taped, for a total of 95. This version of the show recorded in larger studios with a larger set allowed for a lower level devoted to physical challenges and obstacles with a bigger size and, typically, bigger messes. Many episodes in this part of the series featured unique and offbeat themes that questions, challenges, and sometimes wardrobe would be patterned after. Themes included a Salute to Baseball, Backwards Day, Stupid Hat Day, a Salute to Breakfast, and two Super-Slop-a-Mania episodes featuring wrestlers and personalities from the
World Wrestling Federation. Another special episode saw Summers and Harvey each team with a contestant to compete against each other, with
Jim J. Bullock taking over hosting duties. Nickelodeon produced the series at the newly opened
Nickelodeon Studios on the Universal Studios Florida grounds in Orlando. Production began in July 1990 and ended on July 24, 1992, with 80 episodes taped over two seasons. Between the production cycles of
Family Double Dare, two special episodes of
Double Dare were recorded on February 6–7, 1992:
NBA All-Star Double Dare with
National Basketball Association alumni and
Super Special Double Dare with members of the casts of
Clarissa Explains It All and
Welcome Freshmen. Jaime Bojanowski and Chris Miles joined Robin Marrella as stage assistants for
Family Double Dare, replacing Dave Shikiar who left the series between the ending of
Super Sloppy Double Dare in 1989 and the beginning of
Family Double Dare in 1990 to pursue production opportunities on other programs like
The Home Show and
Wild & Crazy Kids. He was replaced as announcer by Doc Holliday, an Orlando-area radio host on
WXXL's
Doc & Johnny in the Morning. Harvey made a cameo appearance on the final episode of the season and the series. , 1990
Family Double Dare concluded on February 7, 1993, with a one-hour Tournament of Champions episode. The episode featured a "brains vs. brawn" mini-tournament where the two families from the final season who answered the most questions correctly played against each other, and the two families from the final season with the fastest obstacle course times played against each other. The winners of those games competed to determine the 1993
Family Double Dare champions. Repeats of the original
Double Dare continued to air on Nickelodeon until March 15, 1991, Repeats of
Family Double Dare remained on the Nickelodeon schedule until January 31, 1999. At this time, development began for the revival that would become
Double Dare 2000.
Double Dare has spawned versions in foreign countries throughout the world, including:
Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, The Netherlands,
Germany, India, and
Brazil. Six episodes of the Australian version (produced by Australia's
Network Ten) recorded for American consumption, one featuring an American team competing against an Australian team, aired on Nickelodeon during a special marathon on September 3, 1990. Repeats of all versions of
Double Dare aired in various cycles on
Nick GAS from the network's inception in 1999 until its closure in 2009. Eileen Braun, who worked on the original
Double Dare as a production assistant and a production coordinator, was the executive producer for
Double Dare 2000. Marc Summers advised on production as an executive consultant. Jeffrey Lamar, Tia Marie Schroeder and Will Finley worked on
Double Dare 2000 as stage assistants.
Double Dare 2000 followed the
Family Double Dare format with a revamped set and bigger physical challenges. It also featured the new Triple Dare Challenge option in round two, and referred to the obstacle course as the Slopstacle Course. The episodes were broadcast in a
4:3 letterboxed format as Nickelodeon did not broadcast in high-definition until 2008. The music for
Double Dare 2000, a
Surf Rock style remix of the original soundtrack, was composed by former
Crack the Sky guitarist Rick Witkowski. Byron Taylor again served as set designer. Repeats remained on the Nickelodeon schedule until July 29, 2001.
2012–2016 , 2013 Beginning May 21, 2012,
Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando produced
Double Dare as a nightly live stage presentation,
Double Dare Live. As part of the Studio Nick feature of the hotel, shows were performed each night exclusively for the resort's guests. The show featured elements and updates from the various versions of
Double Dare, including remixed music, physical challenges and an obstacle course similar to the TV show. Like the most recent formats of the program, eight contestants were selected to participate for the game-playing teams, while additional audience members played other physical challenges throughout the program. The production continued until Nickelodeon Suites Resort Orlando rebranded as a
Holiday Inn Resort on June 1, 2016. A scaled-down version of
Double Dare Live, called
Double Dare Challenge, has been presented at
Nickelodeon Universe in
Mall of America in seasonal cycles since 2016. On July 22, 2016, special live editions of
Double Dare, produced by Nickelodeon and The Splat with original host Marc Summers, took place at the Fluxx nightclub during
San Diego Comic-Con 2016. The event was live streamed on The Splat's
Facebook page and included in the later anniversary special. The week of July 25, 2016, The Splat aired a
Double Dare-themed week featuring episodes and moments from the series' history and included edited versions of the Comic-Con games. These events marked Summers' first Nickelodeon-sponsored involvement with the brand since
Double Dare 2000.
2018 version , host of
Double Dare from 2018 to 2019 A half-hour special presentation, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the show's premiere, the
Double Dare Reunion Special, aired on November 23, 2016, on
Nick at Nite, with an encore airing on The Splat. The special included vintage clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and a new game recorded at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 played by cast members from
All That. Summers, announcer Harvey, and stage assistant Robin Russo (née Marrella) appeared in the special. 1.126 million viewers watched the special on Nick at Nite, outperforming all other shows on the network for the evening, and finishing as the third-most viewed of all non-sports original cable telecasts among viewers ages 18 to 34 for that day. In 2017, Summers stated that, due to the success of the special, he was in negotiations to return to
Double Dare in some form with Nickelodeon. News outlets reported in March 2018 that Nickelodeon was producing a
new series of ''
Blue's Clues, and was in negotiations to reboot Clarissa Explains It All
, two shows originally made by the network in the 1990s. Upon learning of these developments, and inspired by the success of other contemporary television revivals like Will & Grace'', Summers emailed Nickelodeon executives to ask if he was going to be the person to receive "the next phone call." On April 25, 2018, Nickelodeon announced a new version of
Double Dare, which is the second revival of the show. The network ordered 40 episodes that recorded in Los Angeles at
CBS Studio Center throughout June 2018. The series premiered on June 25, airing weeknights. Summers was also one of the show's executive producers.
Fremantle produced the series on behalf of Nickelodeon. bore a heavy resemblance to the original set used in the 1980s. Updates included using
digital screens for displays and decoration, enhanced lighting, and a dedicated space for the obstacle course, though timing and scoring uses emulation of the original vane display-type numerals. Members of the "challenge team" also appeared as stage assistants, including Eric Pierce, Michelle Kallman, James Michael Ryan Jr., and Stad St. Fleur. Edd Kalehoff remixed and re-composed the original theme song and soundtrack for this version. An episode also aired with teams of three siblings, and one with teams of two children with two adult family members. Some episodes featured celebrity participants, such as actors from past Nickelodeon series competing, including
All That's
Jamie Lynn Spears and
Josh Server. The
2018 Kids' Choice Sports, which aired on July 20, 2018, culminated with host and basketball player
Chris Paul competing against Olympic swimmer
Michael Phelps in the
Double Dare obstacle course, presented by Liza Koshy and Marc Summers. Because Koshy had difficulty with her voice during the taping of an episode, Summers filled in as host for the second half of a show, which aired on July 26. The first cycle of season one, airing 24 half-hour episodes, concluded on July 27. Episodes resumed airing on September 30, with weekly airings, culminating with a special 60-minute episode featuring
Kenan & Kel stars
Kenan Thompson and
Kel Mitchell aired on November 21. The final episode of season one aired on February 1, 2019. In January 2019, casting began for a second season of
Double Dare. Filming of season two began on February 27 and ran through early March. The season premiered on March 11, with a new tournament format offering cash prizes in the obstacle course. Two teams of four children compete in the first episode, with the winning team splitting up into four individual teams, where each child is paired up with a celebrity. The winning teams from these episodes play against each other in the fourth and final episode of the tournament.
2021–present On October 29, 2021, Summers hosted a reunion special streamed by Red Tail Entertainment's
Double Dare Live. Titled
Double Dare Live at 35, the Facebook special featured Harvey, Robin Russo, Jason Harris, and other cast members, crew and contestants from
Double Dare's runs discussing their experiences with the program.
The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers premiered
off-Broadway on February 22, 2024, featuring a replica of the
Double Dare set and audience members competing in stunts from the program. Robin Russo's daughter Casey Rae Russo served as the show's stage assistant. ==Reception and achievements==