The Great Escape

The Great Escape is a reality television series on TNT that premiered on June 24, 2012, at 10:00 pm EDT. The competition series, hosted by Rich Eisen, features three two-person teams each week who are dropped "into the middle of their own epic action/adventure movie" and competing for a cash prize. The show is produced by Imagine Television directors Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, and The Amazing Race producers, Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri. The series finished airing on August 26, 2012 and was cancelled in October 2012. Development TNT ordered a pilot episode of The Great Escape from Imagine Entertainment in November 2010, with both Ron Howard and Brian Grazer serving as executive producers, and was considered an initial foray into the reality television market for the network. Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, the creators of The Amazing Race, were added as executive producers in mid-2011, prior to casting and filming of the pilot. Subsequently, in January 2012, TNT announced that it has greenlit ten episodes (only airing nine of them) of The Great Escape, stating that the program has "all the heart-pounding excitement and nail-biting suspense of a summer popcorn movie". The show was produced as to create an experience for the players and the audience of being inside a movie; Howard noted that the elements of clues and puzzle-solving bring to mind his earlier films, The Da Vinci Code and Apollo 13. After selecting a site, the route is carefully crafted as to keep contestants from going too far off the target course, particularly in dangerous environment such as a bayou. Production arrives about a week before filming to prepare the area and create any necessary props for the challenge or the course; in the case of the bayou, homemade shacks were constructed for the starting point for the teams. Challenges are tested to make sure that they are doable within reasonable time prior to filming. Contestant are given as much freedom as necessary to complete the game, with production stepping in only to stop players from certain actions. Format Each episode is a single competition among three teams of two contestants with a previous relationship, such as family relations, lifelong friends, or married or dating couples. Teams are identified by the color of shirts they wear.