''Lab Rats Challenge'' is an Australian children's game show. The program began broadcasting on 4 August 2008 at 4pm on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

with hosts

Drew Jarvis Drew Jarvis is an Australian children's television presenter who has appeared on television programmes The Shak and Lab Rats Challenge. He married Lucy Flook in 2009. Biography Jarvis grew up in Rockhampton, Queensland and was interested in fi ...

and Nicole Dixon. On 5 March 2012, the show moved to the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

with Aleisha Rose replacing Dixon for the revived series. On 12 February 2013 at 10:15am, the show moved to

ABC3 ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3. Hist ...

(now known as 'ABC ME'). The show has also been broadcast on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. In contrast to other Australian children's game shows such as ''

Sharky's Friends ''Sharky's Friends'' is an Australian children's television game show hosted by Miranda Deakin and featuring a quick-witted puppet shark who is named Sharky. The 30-minute show is produced by Ambience Entertainment is aimed at 8-14 year olds. S ...

'', '' A*mazing'', and ''

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'', which are filmed on a large set in front of a live studio audience, ''Lab Rats Challenge'' uses several smaller sets resembling an abandoned science laboratory as well as special effects sequences inserted in post-production. It is filmed in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

's Channel 9 studio on

Mount Coot-tha Mount Coot-tha is a mountain and a suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , there were no residents in the suburb. Visible from much of the city, Mount Coot-tha is a popular bushland tourist destination including the Mou ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Gameplay

The challenges on the show are born from science experiments, such as guessing how many drops of water will fit on a twenty cent coin. Each episode's final challenge, The Labyrinth, features the children competitors racing through a series of physical and mental challenges. The 1st pair to make it through the labyrinth gets cheesed at the end. This is similar in style to the maze on early 1990s Australian kids game show ''A*mazing'' and 1990s American show ''

Legends of the Hidden Temple ''Legends of the Hidden Temple'' is an American action-adventure TV game show that broadcast from 1993 to 1995 on Nickelodeon. Created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone, and Stephen Brown, the program features a fictitious temple, "filled w ...

''.

Rounds

* Nano Challenge – In this round, both teams simultaneously try and complete the challenge and achieve their goal. If they succeed, the team wins 10 points. Its time limit is unlimited. It could be a minute, half a minute or even two. * What'll Happen If – In this round, Drew and Nicole will describe the experiment and both teams, in private must make a hypothesis/guess as to what will happen. After both teams guesses are made, Drew and Nicole will perform the experiment. If their guess is right, the team wins 5 points. * Method Madness – In this round, teams perform the task either simultaneously or one at a time. If the task is to be performed one team at a time, the trailing team will decide whether to go first or second. If there is a tie, the Randomizer will then be done to find the winning team. Whoever goes second will get shrunk by Drew and surrounded by a metal cage with a cat on guard to prevent them from seeing their opposing team in action. Teams will perform a task. The winning team gets 15 points. Another common form of 'shrinking' in Method Madness, is where they 'lose' your heads, through the use of CGI. In the 2012 version, the trailing team got to perform the challenge first and the leading team had their heads relocated. * Rat Race – This is a race to completing the game. Whoever wins, gets 30 points. Along the way, status accelerators are on offer with 20, 15, 10 and 5 points. Obstacles include wire traps, cargo nets, dark room (where the exit is on the ground), slide, ball pits, maze and Cheese Dump. Every episode has a major challenge where teams have to do a task such as filling a cylinder to the line, building a skeleton or operating a crane. In the 2012 version, as well as trying to find the exit to the dark room, teams have to find an eyeball before leaving the dark room. Teams could also intentionally just exit the dark room without finding the eyeball in order to save up time in the race. By doing so, the team wasn't eligible to gain any status accelerator points. At the cargo net, contestants have to climb up two sets and crawl over the ground. After that they slide down a slide and get the status accelerators. After finishing the major task comes the maze which they have to make their way through the correct doors. If there is a tie after What'll Happen If or the Rat Race, there is a tie breaker known as the Randomizer. Both teams are given a beaker of water along with two similar-looking containers of white powder. Only one would cause a chemical reaction when placed in the water. The team that wins the Rat Race gets to choose their powder first. Both teams pour their powder in the water and the one that has a chemical reaction wins. This tie breaker is completely based on chance.

International broadcasts

* In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, Lab Rats Challenge was screened on POP and Kix (until December 2012, and was replaced by ''

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'' in January 2013); at around the same time

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

began airing a similar UK-produced format, ''

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''. * In

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, the series is screened on

Okto Okto is a daily children's program block on Mediacorp's Channel 5. The block airs daily during 5's morning and midafternoon time slots. It is also a weekend Mandarin children's program block on Mediacorp's Channel 8. It airs every weekend fro ...

and Channel 5. * In

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, the series was aired on

Astro TVIQ Astro TVIQ (formerly known as TVIQ) was an English-language (formerly both hybrid language Malay-language and English-language) channel. This channel was free as it was grouped under the Astro Family package. The viewership target was for childr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lab Rats Challenge Australian children's game shows Nine Network original programming Seven Network original programming Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Australian children's television series 2008 Australian television series debuts 2008 Australian television series endings 2012 Australian television series debuts 2012 Australian television series endings 2013 Australian television series debuts 2014 Australian television series endings 2000s Australian game shows 2010s Australian game shows English-language television shows Television shows set in Brisbane Australian television series revived after cancellation Television series by Beyond Television Productions

Gameplay

Rounds

International broadcasts

See also

References