''The Misery Index'' is an American television comedy game show developed for TBS that premiered on October 22, 2019. The show, based on the

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

"Shit Happens," is hosted by

Jameela Jamil Jameela Alia Jamil (born 25 February 1986) is a British actress and presenter. She began her career on Channel 4, where she hosted a pop culture series in the T4 strand from 2009 until 2012. She then became the radio host of ''The Official Cha ...

, and stars the four members of The Tenderloins comedy troupe who also star in

truTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that ...

's ''

Impractical Jokers ''Impractical Jokers'' is an American hidden camera reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, ''Impractical Jokers'' premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011 starring the members of The Tenderloins: James ...

''.

Andy Breckman Andrew Ross Breckman (born March 3, 1955) is an American television and film writer and a radio personality on WFMU. He is the creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning television series ''Monk'' on the USA Network, and is co-hos ...

, who created and wrote the TV shows ''

Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...

'' and '' The Good Cop'', created the card game "Shit Happens" for his company Uncle Andy Toys. He developed the TV version with Ben & Dan Newmark of Grandma's House Entertainment. The show features two competing teams, each composed of a non-celebrity contestant and two members of the Tenderloins, who will "attempt to determine the ranking of hilarious and miserable real-life events--from getting fired to accidentally sexting your grandfather--on a scale of 1–100." Michael Bloom, a senior vice president for TBS, said about the show's premise: "Andy Breckman and the Newmarks have hilariously gamified embarrassment, humiliation, and total misery." Executive producers for the series are Breckman, the Newmark brothers of Grandma's House Entertainment, Howard Klein of

3 Arts Entertainment 3 Arts Entertainment is an American talent management and television/film production company founded by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein in 1991. The company has gone on to produce TV shows such as '' King of the Hill'', ''The Of ...

, and showrunner Rob Anderson. The series has run for three seasons so far; the first consisted of ten half-hour episodes, while the second consisted of twenty. In 2020, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered on January 26, 2021. During the July 6, 2022 episode of “ Talk is Jericho" podcast titled "The Impractical Jokers Appreciation Society" Vulcano commented that the show was "unceremoniously" not renewed by TBS but that he hoped it could come back at some point.

Gameplay

The main game consists of three rounds that involve rating and ranking miserable true stories. Ratings are on a numerical scale of 1 to 100, as determined by a panel of psychologists, and are based on the "Three Pillars of Misery": physical pain, emotional trauma, and long-term psychological impact. At the start of each episode, each contestant relates a story of his/her own whose rating is never revealed.

Round 1: Misery Lane

Two hypothetical situations are presented to the teams, and the contestant whose story has earned the higher Misery Index rating from the panel plays first. Each team must decide whether its contestant's story falls above, below, or between the two situations; a correct choice wins $500.

Round 2: More or Less Miserable

The trailing contestant (or the one who did not start Round 1 in case of a tie) plays first. Each team is shown two similar stories and must decide which one earned the higher Index rating, earning $1,000 for a correct guess.

Round 3: Master of Misery

One miserable story is presented to both teams, and the contestants separately and secretly lock in their guesses at its Index rating. The one whose guess is closer to the actual rating wins $2,000 and advances to the bonus round with his/her teammates. An exact guess doubles the value to $4,000. However, if the two guesses are identical or equally distant from the actual rating, another story is played as a tiebreaker with the same $2,000/$4,000 at stake.

Bonus Round: Margin of Misery

The winning contestant is shown three miserable stories, one at a time, and must guess the Index rating of each within a specified margin of error in order to win additional money as follows. *''First story:'' $5,000 value, within 30 points *''Second story:'' $10,000 value, within 20 points *''Third story:'' $15,000 value, within 10 points The contestant guesses by moving a range finder on a sliding scale, attempting to cover the actual rating, and has 10 seconds to lock in a guess on each story. He/she may choose one Tenderloin teammate for assistance. Before the third story is revealed, the other three Tenderloins join the contestant onstage to provide moral support. The maximum potential winnings total is $35,500, obtained by guessing correctly in each of the first two rounds, winning $4,000 for an exact guess in the third, and successfully covering the actual Index rating of all three stories in the bonus round. On December 23, 2020, the final episode of season two was called a holiday special where the third story of the bonus round yielded $25,000. The contestant that reached that round, Buddy, had played a perfect game and won all three bonus round stories resulting in a grand total of $53,500.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Misery Index 2010s American comedy game shows 2019 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2020s American comedy game shows TBS (American TV channel) original programming Television game shows with incorrect disambiguation Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series created by Andy Breckman Television shows based on games The Tenderloins