Nothing sounded quite so fun as the premise for NBC’s new game show, Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide. It takes the joy of the original backyard kid’s toy – where one would slide down a yellow sheet of plastic coated in Dawn’s dish liquid – and ballooned it into a massive water park competition with a promising cash prize for the winning team. It goes without saying, though, that “explosive diarrhea” isn’t very fun, which is apparently the reason behind production for the show grinding to a halt.
A source revealed to The Wrap that up to 40 crew members involved in NBC’s Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide have come down with “awful explosive diarrhea” that has left them “collapsing” in the midst of filming. As a result, the competition show shut down on June 2 with only 5 days left of shooting scheduled. According to the production studio, testing immediately commenced and, so far, at least one person is positive for a parasitic intestinal infection called giardia.
Of course, the Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide’s water used for the set, which apparently features a 65-foot-tall slide, had to be tested for the parasites as well. The L.A. and Ventura County Health Departments and a third-party lab revealed negative results for the immediate set, including the pond, pool, water truck and restroom sinks. But other tests came up positive for the intestinal parasite in the “surrounding area.”
The source claims that many of NBC’s Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide crew members blame the production for the diarrhea-inducing parasite outbreak. Allegedly, they believe efforts weren’t made to have fresh and clean water while filming the game show. In the studio’s statement, a representative said:
The health and safety of everyone on our set is our number one priority, so out of an abundance of caution we have made the decision to stop production of Ultimate Slip ’N Slide at the current location. We are in the process of determining next steps in order to complete production.
It's honestly difficult not to imagine images of diarrhea-coated slip ‘n slides when imagining the current situation on the NBC competition set. Admittedly, it probably didn’t get that bad, but one can only imagine the dire straits of that infamous Bridesmaids’ food poisoning scene or the “shit on the floor” during that Real Housewives of New York Mexico trip.
It’s a series of unfortunate events that something intended to be an Olympic-sized field day, a child’s dream akin to NBC’s successful American Ninja Warrior competition, is experiencing this unexpected situation. We'll be watching to see if Ultimate Slip ‘N Slide will be able to get production back in gear in time for its slated Aug. 8 premiere on NBC.
