Throw it Up—I Mean Give It Up—For G4

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts must be proud.

One of his networks, G4, appears poised to reach a new low in term of taste in programming with its new summer series, Hurl!  The show’s very concept—inspired by viral videos—makes me want to hurl, i.e., throw up. But then I’m out of the network’s demo, which is young men, so what I think doesn’t matter.

Here’s Hurl!’s premise, as explained verbatim in a press release today.

“In each episode of the half-hour series, five contestants will attempt to consume the largest quantity of food in a short amount of time. They will then immediately be subjected to a series of challenges designed to shake them up. The one to hold his or her food down the longest claims victory and walks away with a cash prize, the Iron Stomach Award.”

The idea is to make the players throw up, barf, toss their cookies—you get the gist. You know, old-fashioned Saturday-night-at-the-frat-house kind of fun.

The competition has several rounds, which will entail having contestants devour goodies—such as chicken pot pies, New England clam chowder, fish sticks and blueberry pie—and then make them do “nausea-inducing physical challenges.” Puke in Technicolor.

In its announcement, which apparently is not a joke or a parody, G4 said, “Viewers will laugh and cringe their way through the half-hour show as they witness the eliminations of contestants who can no longer avoid the inevitable queasiness and the often messy celebrations of the new champions.”

Well, I’m cringing already. Hey, maybe Hurl! will be tastefully executed. It’s certainly an original idea for a TV show. But to me, it manages to make MTV’s old Jackass look like Masterpiece Theatre in comparison.