Netflix has released the first teaser for its controversial reality competition show Squid Game: The Challenge, which is based on the hit South Korean television series. The show will feature 456 contestants competing in a series of children’s games for a chance to win $4.56 million.
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Squid Game: The Challenge trailer
The Squid Game: The Challenge, inspired by the hit Korean drama Squid Game, is set to premiere on Netflix on November 22, 2023.
The original Squid Game series, Netflix’s most popular show of all time, told the story of a divorced father and gambler who joins a secret competition with 456 total players. But the losers of each round are executed in the survival game until one victor remains and takes home the cash prize. The popular series has been renewed for a second season.
The reality version of Squid Game features several games from the flagship Netflix series, including Red Light, Green Light. Another clip shows a triangular table reminiscent of the one used for the black-tie dinner event that the final three players attended in the original series.
Watch the trailer here now:
Contestants speak up
While the contestants in Squid Game: The Challenge will not actually be killed if they lose, the show has already been riddled with controversy. Former contestants have come forward to Rolling Stone alleging that the show was “cruel,” “inhumane,” and “rigged.”
One former contestant told Rolling Stone, “It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I’ve ever been through. We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed.”
Another former contestant said, “All the torment and trauma we experienced wasn’t due to the game or the rigor of the game. It was the incompetencies of scale — they bit off more than they could chew.”
456 real people.
— Netflix (@netflix) September 22, 2023
4.56 million dollars.
Squid Game: The Challenge begins November 22. pic.twitter.com/bxu0wSBNr5
For example, during the filming of the “Red Light, Green Light” game, contestants were reportedly forced to stand in a freezing airport hangar for up to nine hours, unable to move for 30-minute stretches. Some contestants even required medical attention for the extreme cold.
Netflix has previously defended the safety of the show and denied the allegations of rigging. However, the controversy has raised concerns about the ethics of reality television and the treatment of contestants.
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