Nickelodeon Guts (stylized as Nickelodeon GUTS) is an American television action sports competition series hosted by American actor/writer Mike O’Malley and officiated by English actress Moira “Mo” Quirk. The series originally ran from 1992 to 1995 on Nickelodeon.

Each episode features three young athletes competing against each other in four extreme versions of athletic events culminating in a fifth and final round which set the three competitors on a race up an artificial mountain to decide the victor.

Production

The series was filmed at Sound Stage 21 at Universal Studios Florida on a set dubbed the “Extreme Arena”. This arena consists of a turf playing field, a pool, a racing track, an obstacle course and the Aggro Crag.

Season 1 began taping on August 12, 1992.^[1]

Reruns were shown on Nickelodeon from January 15, 1996, until January 31, 1999, before moving to Nick GAS from March 1, 1999, until the station ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2007 (April 23, 2009, on Dish Network). It has occasionally been seen in reruns on TeenNick since January 1, 2008. Since 2011, those reruns aired on the channel’s NickSplat block on an occasional basis. Pluto TV‘s Nick Games channel showed reruns of 4 episodes in 2019, but Pluto TV removed the channel in 2020 after a major overhaul of the channel lineup. As of 2022, the show now airs as part of a Nick Games block on Pluto TV channel 1016, “No Parents Allowed”.

In 2008, Nickelodeon produced two seasons of a revival of the program, My Family’s Got GUTS.

Gameplay

On each half-hour episode, three children or teenagers (blue, red, and purple) compete against each other in four events that are based on “extreme” versions of skills in popular sports, such as basketball, baseball, football, and soccer. While most of these events include the use of an elastic harness, others make use of a wave pool, and sometimes a racing track is used. During the show’s run, more creative and ambitious events were developed, even including a fabricated ski slope.

The competitors are awarded points based on their comparative performance in each event. First place in each event is worth 300 points. Second place receives 200 points, and third place earns 100 points. In general, in case of a tie, the players involved each receive the higher placing and points, however, if two or more players are disqualified, fail to finish, or fail to score, they each receive third place points. The player with the most points after all five events won the game and received a gold GUTS medal and a faux glowing piece of the Aggro Crag. Second place received a silver medal and third received a bronze medal.

The contestants are introduced in the breaks between events in a segment dubbed “Spill Your GUTS”. The segment was done as an interview with one of the hosts in the first two seasons (O’Malley in season 1 and Quirk in season 2), and was subsequently a prerecorded segment. In seasons 3 and 4, the contestants introduced themselves. During Global Guts, a flag of the player’s country was shown, followed by the contestant introducing him/herself. Then, the location where the contestant is from was shown on a map, followed by him/her giving more information about what he/she does.