''Fake Off'' is an American

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

television series. The show features groups of performers who recreate and reimagine moments from pop culture (e.g. movies, events, television series) in spectacular 90-second routines. The teams use a diverse range of stage disciples including

black light theatre Black light theatre (in Czech ''černé divadlo'') or simply black theatre, is a theatrical performance style characterized by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light illusion. This form of theatre originated from Asia and can be f ...

projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a video projection, projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industr ...

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – wikt:inanimate, inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. S ...

, and

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

. The term "Faking" is used to describe the act of recreating an iconic moment. It debuted on

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

on October 27, 2014, and is produced by

Shine America Endemol Shine North America (stylized as EndemolShine NorthAmerica) is the American division of Banijay Entertainment that was founded on March 15, 2012, as a merger of Shine Americas, Shine USA, and Reveille Productions. Endemol Shine North Ame ...

. TruTV renewed the show for a second season, which was also its last.

Summary

The knock-out performance competition is hosted by Robert Hoffman and judged by actor and dancer

Harry Shum, Jr. Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series ''Glee'' (2009–2015), Magnus Bane on the Freeform television series ''Shadowhunters'' (2016–2019), and Dr. Benso ...

, Pop Star

Rozonda Thomas Rozonda Ocielian Thomas (born February 27, 1971), also known by her stage name Chilli, is an American singer, dancer and actress who is a member of the group TLC, one of the best-selling girl groups of the late 1990s. Early life Thomas was bor ...

and renowned choreographer Michael Curry. The series features ten teams of performers who each week are given a new pop-culture theme (such as action movies,

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

the Moon landing ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

, or

the Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competiti ...

). Each team has one week to turn their theme into a 90-second Fake that is then scored by the three judges and the studio audience. The team whose Fake got the lowest score is eliminated from the competition. The Fakes consist of visually stunning special effects that are generated by the group through various stagecraft techniques. After eight episodes one team wins the title of America's Best Fakers and $100,000.

Contestants

Competition summary

Season 1

Week 1

;Running order

Week 2

;Running order

Week 3

Season 2

The judges are

Harry Shum Jr. Harry Shum Jr. (born April 28, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Mike Chang on the Fox television series '' Glee'' (2009–2015), Magnus Bane on the Freeform television series '' Shadowhunters'' (2016–2019), and Dr. ...

Laurieann Gibson Laurieann Gibson (born July 14, 1969) is a Canadian choreographer, director, television personality, singer, actress, and dancer. She has choreographed dance numbers for musical artists such as Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, and Beyon ...

, and Beau Casper Smart. The host is

Corbin Bleu Corbin Bleu Reivers ( ; born February 21, 1989) is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the late 1990s before rising to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Chad Danforth in the ''High School Musica ...

Meghan Camarena Meghan Channing Camarena (born July 17, 1987), known by her online pseudonym Strawburry17, is an American YouTube personality, television host, actress and comic book writer. She has worked on a number of videos, web series, and films, gaining ...

is the backstage correspondent. 10 new teams competed in Season 2 (Academy of Villains, Astra Dance Theatre, ClownSnotBombs, CubeMetricks, The Deca Crew, JUNK, LUMA, On The Fly, The Surrealists, Tribe of Fools). * Winners: Academy of Villains * Runners-Up: Cubametricks * 3rd Place: The Surrealists * 4th Place: Tribe of Fools * Eliminated: Astra Dance Theatre, LUMA, ClownSnotBombs, The Deca Crew, JUNK, On The Fly

Week 1

The theme of the week was "Movie Night".

Reception

The show received a positive reception from critics when it launched in October 2014. Allison Keene from ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote “TruTV has truly created a flashy and worthwhile series that is cut above current competition series, and far more exciting than yet another iteration of a singing show.” Pilot Viruet from Flavorwire wrote “I think Fake Off is my new favorite unscripted program, it was completely mesmerizing.”

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fake Off 2014 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings 2010s American reality television series American English-language television shows TruTV original programming