Fox's ‘Ultimate Tag’ fails to win hearts, bored viewers say they'd rewatch ‘American Gladiator’ from '90s instead

To quench the thirst of the sports lovers who have been immensely missing baseball and basketball season due to the pandemic, Fox decided to present their new competition show ‘Ultimate Tag’, which premiered on May 20.

Reflecting formats and elements of old American TV programs such as ‘American Ninja Warrior’, ‘Wipeout’ and ‘Superstars’, Fox’s latest ‘Ultimate Tag’ featured commoners compete against athletes, including a few parkour experts and professional taggers. Meanwhile, the competition-based show has also sparked the interest of many for having the NFL star JJ Watt and his brothers, TJ and Derek, as its hosts.

“To go into this space, you couldn’t take it too seriously. There’s amazing feats of athleticism, but it also has characters, had an entertainment bent, not just a show about physicality,” Deadline quoted Rob Wade, the President of Alternative Entertainment and Specials at Fox, as saying. “Scale is so important for broadcast. It’s the biggest concern with Covid. It’s very hard not to have scale in a broadcast show, it’s what the public expects and what network does best and we wanted to make sure that this was a real spectacle." 

‘Ultimate Tag’, however, has garnered mixed reactions from fans. While a few are simply thrilled to have a new show to watch while cooped up in their homes, the rest terming it “boring” couldn’t stop drawing a comparison between ‘Ultimate Tag’ and 1989’s ‘American Gladiators’. Another fan wrote, “Is it just me or does ANYONE else see AMERICAN GLADIATOR when the #UltimateTag spots come on?!? #fox”

“I want to like this show SO MUCH but it’s just so... boring??? Ninja Warrior makes up for bland hosts with crazy courses. Holy Moley is a perfect show. Wipeout was absurd and hilarious in how mean it was. Ultimate Tag is just a less interesting American Gladiators,” added another.
 
And a few fans have bluntly expressed that they just didn’t like ‘Ultimate Tag’ and how they prefer rewatching ‘American Gladiator’ instead. While one fan noted, “Ultimate Tag kinda sucked so we’re watching American Gladiators from the 90s.” “Sorry #UltimateTag is the worst produced in this genre in years. Too bad for @JJWatt this won’t last 3 episodes,” added another to the previous tweet.