Spy Games is a competition show that recetly started up on Bravo. Based on the name, it should come as no surprise to learn that the show features competitors engaged in spy-themed competitions for a $100,000 prize at the very end. Here are 10 things that you may or may not have known about Spy Games:
1. Supposedly Inspired By Station S
The show was supposedly inspired by a WW2 program called Station S that trained civilians to become spies. It is interesting to note that the Allies had enormous success in intelligence as well as counter-intelligence versus the Axis in said conflict, which can be explained by a number of reasons. For example, the Axis powers lacked centralization, meaning that the separate segments stuggled to coordinate. Likewise, both the United States and the United Kingdom were willing to take a very experimental approach to the intelligence war, which rewarded them with rich results that could be translated into strategic gains.
2. The Season Started Out with 10 Competitors
Given the nature of the show, it makes sense that it would have the same cast of competitors competing with one another over the course of a single season. For those who are curious, the season started out with 10 competitors, which is a number that has been falling on a steady basis.
3. There Is Training
Training takes up a prominent position in the show. After all, the competitors are supposed to be serving as spies against one another, so it makes sense for them to be taught some spycraft. One example of a training session involved lockpicking taught by a one-time S.W.A.T commander. Another example of a training session involved situational awareness taught by one of the show’s own judges.
4. There Are Missions
Of course, it is the missions that make up the show’s main appeal, seeing as how these provide the competitors with the chance to show off both their old skills and their new skills. In some cases, there have been very close connections between the training and the mission, as shown by the one mission that required the competitors to use their new lockpicking skills to get through three different kinds of locks. However, it should be mentioned that the missions can be very wide-ranging in nature, thus making for much more entertaining viewing than otherwise possible.
5. It Is Possible to Sabotage
It isn’t uncommon for competition shows to let competitors impose a handicap on other competitors under certain circumstances. As such, it should come as no surprise to learn that Spy Games features this kind of thing as a reward that competitors can receive for their successes, which can be used to make missions much more challenging for their rivals. Something that can have a very noticeable effect on the outcomes of missions.
6. Hosted By Mia Kang
The show is hosted by Mia Kang. For those who are curious, Kang is a half-British, half-South Korean model who was born in Hong Kong. She had serious eating issues that started up before she stepped into the world of modeling, which weren’t helped by rather exacerbated by her career of choice. Fortunately, Kang came upon a healthier path when she was introduced to Muay Thai, which is the Thai boxing that is sometimes called the Art of the Eight Limbs because of its use of the elbows and the knees in addition to the hands and the feet.
7. One of the Judges Is Douglas Laux
In total, there are three judges for Spy Games. One of the three is Douglas Laux, a one-time war zone case officer who worked for the CIA. He has close to a decade’s experience, which was accumulated in places such as Afghanistan, Syria, and the Indian subcontinent. In intelligence, Laux believes that successful operatives need calmness with which to handle the problems that have come up, grit with which to overcome such problems in an independent manner, and the ability to understand things in an effective and efficient manner.
8. One of the Judges Is Evy Poumpouras
Another judge is Evy Poumpouras, someone who was once in the NYPD before moving on to the U.S. Secret Service. As such, she has worked in the protective details for Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush. On top of that, Poumpouras has taken on a wide range of other roles over the course of her career, with examples ranging from investigating financial crimes and violent crimes to interrogation. Nowadays, she is a journalist who specializes in national security as well as law enforcement, which is on top of her teaching criminology at the City University of New York. In Poumpouras’s case, she is interested in individuals with excellent listening skills.
9. One of the Judges Is Erroll Southers
The third judge is Erroll Southers, a police officer turned FBI Special Agent turned scholar of national security. This can be seen in how he now teaches a course on homeland security at USC, which is the first of its kind for the school. Southers is very well-suited for the role, seeing as how he once held a leadership position in the relevant fields for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department. In any case, Southers looks for the kind of people who can hold up in high-pressure situations, thus enabling them to continue pursuing their desired ends in spite of the issues that have stacked up before them.
10. Makes Use of the James Bond Appeal
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Spy Games makes heavy use of the consumers’ interest in spy-themed media, which has been built up over the course of decades and decades by James Bond as well as other franchises. Spy stories have existed for a very, very long time, so it makes sense that what we would recognize as the spy movie came into existence in the era of silent film. This is tied in with the invasion literature that was popular in Britain from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, which was obsessed with hypothetical invasions carried out by hostile powers. Due to that, it wasn’t much of a jump to go from foreign invasions to foreign spies. Something that wasn’t helped by the events of the times as the European powers drew closer and closer to the First World War.
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