ORLANDO, Fla. – What does it take to be on a reality TV show? There’s a lot more that goes into it than one might think, especially a show based off another show, where players compete until their death.
We’re talking about ‘Squid Game: The Challenge.’ The reality show is based off Netflix’s original South Korean show, ‘Squid Game.’
Dr. Kien Vuu participated as #330.
“This was truly an immersive experience and they really didn’t spare any attention to detail, because the food we ate, the bunk beds, the lights in the room, all the details in every single set, was just so done with detail to match the original show,” Dr. Vuu said.
The original show follows hundreds of contestants facing financial hardships, where they compete in children’s games for an enormous cash prize. They don’t realize until the first game that elimination also means the end of their life.
Obviously, in the reality spinoff version of the show, players are not murdered, but the conditions still look brutal. All the players wear the same track suits, they eat the same food every day, and they stay in a dorm with no windows.
The main goal of the show: Win the major $4.56 million prize.
“In between going to the games, you were just in the dorms. This was for hours and hours and hours, waiting for food, which was probably not the very best food, very bland tasting, probably nutrient poor food. There was no clocks on the wall, so you had no idea what time it was, whether it was sunlight or dark, you had no idea,” explained Dr. Vuu.
He said he probably spent five to six days inside the game. They had to come up with things to do to keep everyone going and to keep their spirits up.
The reality show takes some games from the original one, while also mixing in new challenges.
“Filming the challenges was actually no walk in the park. Everything that looked like it was only five or 10 minutes on camera or the final product, actually took hours to film,” Dr. Vuu said.
He says the red-light, green-light game took around seven to eight hours to film.
“People thought we were going to pause for only 30 seconds up to a minute or something like that, but no, people actually had to hold their positions for up to 15 to 45 minutes at a time. So, if you were in a position that’s really hard to hold, you were probably going to give up.”
During the show, Dr. Vuu quickly stood out as a leader, which also meant other players considered him a threat and wanted him eliminated.
“I think any time you put yourself out there, you’re going to be a target in these shows.”
In real life, Dr. Vuu is a prominent medical doctor who specializes in longevity and optimizing human performance.
“You place people in an environment where there is a limited resource, such as one cash prize. What do people do there? How do people start to form alliances? Human behavior: what happens under stress? These are things that we typically find in the workplace, in our families, in our communities, where we have to work together to solve problems, or do we get into the stress mode where we’re not showing up as ourselves and make decisions that are not aligned with our highest self, not only as individuals, but as a community. I saw that play out in the games quite a bit.”
He says he joined the show as a social experiment to learn what drives human behavior under high-stakes, stressful circumstances.
“The challenges itself really tested human behavior. What would people do under extreme stress? What if you’re given a challenge where your own well-being had to be compromised in order to survive? All these things played out. When you take away good sleep, when you take away sunshine, good food, nutrition, an environment where people aren’t used to working out or moving their bodies, they’re going to be at a place where they’re going to be in more fear and survival mode.”
He went on to explain, “Then you throw on top of that the challenges that you have to make. One, eliminate a player, two, make a decision for the entire group whether or not they got a tough cookie challenge. All these things add additional stress to people.”
Watch the full interview below: