What is it about obstacle courses that seems to have captured the imagination of producers and viewers? Unlike “Wipeout,” in which players must traverse a hilarious obstacle course on foot, “Crash Course” ( 8 p.m. Wednesday, WLS-Ch. 7) features couples competing in extreme driving challenges across what the network is calling an “outrageous” obstacle course.
“Crash Course” shares with “Wipeout” that same snarky tone, that same mockery of contestants, that same sense that someone could actually be killed or seriously maimed in the production of this prime-time entertainment. On the reviewing stand, we have hosts Orlando Jones and Dan Cortese, while those being reviewed are two-person teams who must undergo various driving challenges aboard souped-up cars that “are reinforced to withstand the most dangerous of crashes.”
Each team has to survive a course before heading to the next round; as in “Wipeout,” the winner gets $50,000. Teams include mother-son, husband-wife, roommates and so on, while the courses require such maneuvers as driving the car onto a moving flatbed truck while being pelted by huge ball-like objects.
Jones (“Mad TV”) and Cortese (“Surviving Suburbia”) are not the world’s most recognizable celebrities, but they are durable and seasoned pros who know what they have to do to score some laughs to get this show across the summer finish line for ABC. They aren’t as consistently funny as “Wipeout’s” John Anderson and John Henson, who work off scripts; this shtick is, or seems to be, improv. And when did car crashes become fodder for TV comedy?