As far as the viewers at home could see, the contestants looked nervous because they were on TV. They had no idea what the live studio audience was and just how ravenous they all were. The viewers heard humanish laughter coming from the audience and assumed it was a pre-recorded laugh track. They never saw all the teeth poorly hidden behind mouths that salivated whenever a contestant started to lose.
The aim of the game was simple - guess what the majority of the audience had answered and you win... eventually. There was one lifeline to call your loved ones before you left for an "all expenses paid vacation" never to return. The only other option was to switch places with someone the audience picked and they knew exactly what would hurt you the most.
It wasn't a particularly popular show, not one that anybody was ever really interested in and not one that anybody recognised the contestants from. You'd never see a friend or neighbour, always some nobody from nowhere with just enough to lose to make them desperately want to win.
Five seasons came and went and almost fifty people were missing by the end of it. All on permanent vacation to towns that only seemed to exist online and all of whom decided to stay in these towns forever. The audience feasted and thrived until they had a contestant who'd watched the show before.
They hadn't seen the crew, made up of spare machine parts hastily grafted onto lesser audience members, yet they weren't afraid when they met. They feigned terror at first, just like the others who'd been grabbed from the streets and taken to the studio to participate.
By the time the first commercials were over, five people were gone and the studio was filled with wet crunches as they got rid of the delicious evidence. After so many seasons they'd grown complacent enough to not bother hiding this from the contestants any more.
After so many seasons they stopped properly checking their victims for weapons. All it took was a small pistol that had been tucked into a shoe, beneath oversized jeans. As soon as they made it to the final round and lost the final question they pulled the gun out and opened fire... on themself.
Their death was quicker that way and with the show being broadcast live someone was bound to see them go and call the police. Suicide was easy enough to explain... the creatures hiding behind the camera however, much less so.
Nothing aired the next day or the days after, nothing was written in the papers, no reports filed.
It simply ceased to be and something else replaced it.
Something that learnt from their mistakes.
The aim of the game was simple - guess what the majority of the audience had answered and you win... eventually. There was one lifeline to call your loved ones before you left for an "all expenses paid vacation" never to return. The only other option was to switch places with someone the audience picked and they knew exactly what would hurt you the most.
It wasn't a particularly popular show, not one that anybody was ever really interested in and not one that anybody recognised the contestants from. You'd never see a friend or neighbour, always some nobody from nowhere with just enough to lose to make them desperately want to win.
Five seasons came and went and almost fifty people were missing by the end of it. All on permanent vacation to towns that only seemed to exist online and all of whom decided to stay in these towns forever. The audience feasted and thrived until they had a contestant who'd watched the show before.
They hadn't seen the crew, made up of spare machine parts hastily grafted onto lesser audience members, yet they weren't afraid when they met. They feigned terror at first, just like the others who'd been grabbed from the streets and taken to the studio to participate.
By the time the first commercials were over, five people were gone and the studio was filled with wet crunches as they got rid of the delicious evidence. After so many seasons they'd grown complacent enough to not bother hiding this from the contestants any more.
After so many seasons they stopped properly checking their victims for weapons. All it took was a small pistol that had been tucked into a shoe, beneath oversized jeans. As soon as they made it to the final round and lost the final question they pulled the gun out and opened fire... on themself.
Their death was quicker that way and with the show being broadcast live someone was bound to see them go and call the police. Suicide was easy enough to explain... the creatures hiding behind the camera however, much less so.
Nothing aired the next day or the days after, nothing was written in the papers, no reports filed.
It simply ceased to be and something else replaced it.
Something that learnt from their mistakes.
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