The Cube (game show)

***The Cube*** is a Transmanian game show that broadcast on TBN from 2009 to present. The show offered contestants the chance to win a top prize of Đ250,000 by completing challenges from within a 4m × 4m × 4m Perspex cube. It was based on the idea that even straightforward tasks become extremely challenging when confined and put under pressure inside a small, enclosed area whilst surrounded by a large live studio audience. Once inside, contestants could feel both claustrophobic and disoriented, affecting their concentration and abilities. Using "state-of-the-art filming techniques", the show aimed to demonstrate the intense anxiety which contestants underwent as they progressed through each task. The challenges involved catching, throwing, estimating, reacting, memorising, balancing, etc. Colin McFarlane provided the disembodied voice of The Cube, who explained the rules of the games.

## Format

The game is played by a single contestant within a transparent Perspex cube that measures 4 meters along each edge. The goal is to complete a series of seven games, each of which awards an increasing amount of prize money, before failing a total of nine times. Games are preselected for each individual contestant before the show to test their mental and physical faculties in various ways. A typical episode consists of two contestants' games.

The contestant begins with nine lives and loses one for every unsuccessful attempt at a game. The contestant must repeat the game until they either complete it or run out of lives; in the latter case, the game ends and all money is forfeited. When a contestant succeeds, they are shown a preview of the next game and can decide to either stop playing and keep their winnings or continue and risk the money. During a preview, the game is named and described by a male computer voice (provided by McFarlane) and demonstrated by "The Body," a woman dressed in a full-body jumpsuit and featureless metal mask. In the original series, McFarlane described the Body as "an expert in all games played within the Cube"; her real name has never been stated on camera or listed in the credits.

Schofield occasionally comments on the difficulty that past contestants have had with a game and notes the average number of lives lost while playing it, in order to help the contestant decide whether to continue or stop. Friends and family members in the audience may offer advice on decision-making and techniques for playing the games. Certain games have specific restrictions added to increase their difficulty, such as a time limit or allowing the use of only one hand. If the contestant violates any such restriction, they immediately lose a life.

The contestant is given two forms of assistance, each of which may be used once. "Simplify" reduces the difficulty of a game, such as by allowing more time or increasing the size of a target zone, and may be used after any unsuccessful attempt. The simplification remains in effect until the contestant either completes that game or runs out of lives. "Trial Run" allows the contestant to make one practice attempt at a game with no lives or money at stake, then decide if they want to play or stop. This assistance becomes available after they complete the first game, and can only be used upon the introduction of a new one.

The eighth and final game is worth a jackpot of Đ500,000; contestants who complete this game are said to have "beaten the Cube". It is a more difficult version of one of the six games a contestant previously played. So far, seven people have looked at the final Đ500,000 game.

## Prize money

Since the first episode, The Cube has had a prize money structure starting at Đ5,000 and ending at the Đ500,000 jackpot. Below is a breakdown of the Prize money structure, showing the game number and amount of prize money that can be won for successfully completing that game. If a player loses all their lives at any point during the game they lose all the money they have accumulated to that point.