''What Would You Do?'' (commonly abbreviated as ''WWYD'', and formerly known as ''Primetime: What Would You Do?'' through the program's fifth season) is an American situational

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

that has been broadcast on the

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(ABC) since February 26, 2008. Created by Chris Whipple, the show with a

social experiment A social experiment is a type of psychological or sociological research for testing people's reactions to certain situations or events. The experiment depends on a particular social approach where the main source of information is the point of v ...

format follows the reactions of passing strangers as they encounter conflict or illegal activity in a public setting, unaware that it is all staged and being recorded with hidden cameras. Throughout all of its sixteen seasons, the show has been hosted by news correspondent John Quiñones. Appearing periodically on ABC's '' Primetime'' from 2005 to 2007, ''What Would You Do?'' became an instant success for the ABC network. Following the 2007 writers' strike, ABC ordered the first season of the show. The series was annually renewed for a second, third, fourth, and fifth season. Starting with the sixth season, the show began to feature guest appearances, which included

Barbara Corcoran Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, syndicated columnist, and television personality. She founded The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million ...

, Howie Mandel, and

Meredith Vieira Meredith Louise Vieira (born December 30, 1953) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. She is best known as the original moderator of the daytime talk show '' The View'' (1997–2006), the original host of the syndicated ...

. Following the seventh season, ''What Would You Do?'' aired its first Christmas special in its eighth season. This was followed by guest appearances by

Daymond John Daymond Garfield John (born February 23, 1969) is an American businessman, investor, and television personality. He is best known as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU, and appears as an investor on the ABC reality tel ...

and Pnina Tornai in the show's ninth season,

Winnie Harlow Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young (born July 27, 1994), known professionally as Winnie Harlow, is a Canadian fashion model and public spokesperson on the skin condition vitiligo. She gained prominence in 2014 as a contestant on the 21st cycle of th ...

in the show's tenth season, and an era without guests in the show's eleventh and twelfth seasons. A 10-year anniversary special was aired in 2017 as the season finale of the thirteenth season, titled "What Would You Do?: Then and Now", featuring scenarios originally aired on ''Primetime'' and in season one being remade with the same actors in the same locations. Following the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons of the show, ABC announced that they would air episodes filmed before the

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as part of the show's sixteenth season, as well as a special hosted by Gio Benitez as part of the sixteenth season's season finale.

History

''What Would You Do?'' was conceived as a format-based series for ABC's newsmagazine '' Primetime'', however, all on-air references to the parent program were removed from ''What Would You Do?'' following the discontinuation of ''Primetime'' as a standalone program by the network in 2010, with subject-based formats of the program, such as ''Primetime: Family Secrets'', airing thereafter during the summer months or as a temporary replacement for entertainment programs canceled during the fall-to-spring television season. The program features actors acting out scenes of conflict or illegal activity in public settings while hidden cameras record the scene, and the focus is on whether or not bystanders intervene, and how. Variations are usually included, such as changing the genders, the races, or the clothing of the actors performing the scene, to see if bystanders react differently. The situations often pertain to prejudice; race, sex, religious beliefs, physical and mental disabilities, obesity and weight, sexual harassment, vandalism, theft, physical appearance, homelessness, financial trouble, parenting, and social status are common themes. Quiñones appears at the end of each scenario to interview bystanders and witnesses about their reactions. During some of the segments, psychology professors, teachers, or club members watch and discuss the recorded video with Quiñones, explaining and making inferences on the bystanders' reactions. This and similar formats have been criticized for their design, leading to conclusions about the bystanders that fail to account for other possible explanations for their behavior. In 2013, a short-lived spinoff titled ''Would You Fall for That?'' was aired, with 3 episodes. Filmed entirely in the state of New York, the show presented a study on human behavior based on hidden camera social experiments performed on complete strangers.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2008)

Season 2 (2009)

Season 3 (2010)

Season 4 (2010–2011)

Season 5 (2012)

Season 6 (2012)

Season 7 (2013)

Season 8 (2013)

Season 9 (2014)

Season 10 (2015)

Season 11 (2016)

Season 12 (2016)

Season 13 (2017)

Season 14 (2018)

Season 15 (2019)

Season 16 (2020)

Ratings

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Live +7 ratings were not available, so Live +3 ratings have been used instead.

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Syndication

Reruns of older ''What Would You Do?'' episodes began airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on February 15, 2011, under the title ''What Would You Do?: OWN Edition''. Reruns of the program began airing on HLN in 2012 as part of the cable news channel's primetime schedule. In the United States, the show has been broadcast on A&E since 2015.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{ABC News Personalities 2000s American reality television series 2010s American reality television series 2008 American television series debuts ABC News American Broadcasting Company original programming American hidden camera television series 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows English-language television shows Hidden camera television series Television shows filmed in the United States