New Sports
Each week, “New Sports”, would take a number of professional athletes, celebrities, etc. (henceforth referred to as “talent”), and have them compete in a “New Sport.” The “New Sport” could be any competitive endeavor that the producers and/or audience liked that was not yet popular. The producers could make up brand new sports. Some sports that have been played for years but never broadcast could be shown. There are a number of ideas below.
There could be online competitions for creating sports. I’m sure there are other kids like me who had the idea during the weekly family supermarket trip to roll the grocery shopping cart around in an “artistic” way, like Rhythmic Gymnastics. Maybe not, but I’m sure there are lots of people with fantastic New Sport ideas.
Once a season’s worth of Sports have been chosen, the talent for the week would begin a 7 day training course in the New Sport. The producers will have created a set of rules for the New Sport, and the talent fully notified of these rules. After 3 days of training, the talent would be allowed to submit revisions to the rule set. After the 7 days of training, a potentially live contest would be broadcast.
The training, of course, could be filmed. A personal instructor would be assigned to each of the talent members. The instructor would have tried the sport and devised some training regimen. The talent member would then be asked what they would like to do. If they don’t know, or want the advice of the instructor, they could follow that advice. Otherwise, the talent member could choose to train in any way they’d like excepting, of course, swimming in a million dollars cash or the like.
During the training show, the rules of the game would be explained. We’d meet the referees. It would be possible to get audience members to submit or vote on new rules online. Fan clubs might spring up. It’s probably to early for betting.
After a season’s worth of New Sports, the producers could set up a season of the sport, potentially during the summer season. Who knows where it could go from there, though I doubt “Shopping Cart Ballet” would become the next Football.
Thoughts of New Sports include:
A metric form of Gymnastics that measures height, width, strength, etc. of a gymnastic maneuver. Who can flip the highest. Who can cover the most ground in a single layover. There could be an artist score, possibly provided by the studio audience.
Shopping Cart Ballet, as stated above. “The artist movement of super market shopping carts.” Imagine Shaq dancing with a grocery cart.
We could feature real sports events that get no press. The “NFL Punt, Pass, and Kick” competition could be broadcast, with background on the players. Human interest story with real competition in America’s favorite game.
Thumb Wrestling
Hacky Sack competitions, both metric and artistic. There are already Foot Bag competitions. Put them on television. I’m sure millions have played Hacky Sack, at least once.
There is also a drunk game we came up with in the dorms back in college called Hacky Sack Basketball. One tries to dribble (kick without hitting the ground) a hacky sack from one end of a room to a hoop on the other end while the other team tries to prevent this.
Broomball. Broom hockey on ice without skates. Hours of fun.
Maybe we could revive the Mesoamerican ballgame, where the victor sometimes got sacrificed to the Gods. I’m sure the producers would want to leave out that part.
As you can see, there are a number of ways the show could go. I hope I have left you with the gist of my idea. I’m sure there are bits missing, but I think this document would be a good starting place if such a show were ever to be produced. Thanks for reading.