Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Buddy Games’ On CBS, Where Teams Of Friends Compete By Playing Crazy Games Like They Used To In Summer Camp

We never had great memories of summer camp, but we understand why people do; you and like-minded friends, being silly and goofy in the summer sun, with no parents around… It sounds appealing. A new CBS reality competition, created by Josh Duhamel and based on his 2019 movie Buddy Games, tries to revive that feeling, with teams of friends who have known each other for years.

BUDDY GAMES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: As we hear the intro to “Glory Days,” host Josh Duhamel asks us if we ever wanted to go back and hang out with our friends and do the things we used to when we were kids. For 20 years, he and his childhood buddies have been doing just that; they call it “the Buddy Games”.

The Gist: In Buddy Games six teams of four old friends convene in what looks like an idyllic summer camp setting and play crazy games. The prize for the last team standing is $200,000. These are people who have worked together for years, like a team of Chicago cops, or have been friends since they were kids or teens, like groups from Philly and Oklahoma. There’s also a group of Mrs. America pageant buddies, a group that is part of their city’s LGBTQ community and a group of roller derby friends.

When Duhamel greets the group, he tells them about the first challenge, in a round called the “Curveball.” They have to make their way to the luxury lodge where they’ll stay, but they either have to drag a massively heavy duffel bag, gag on some nasty curdled mac and cheese, or “swag”, meaning strip down to their birthday suits. The first one who makes it to the lodge can give another team a “curveball,” which is a disadvantage, during the main challenge.

The main challenge is an obstacle course, with electrified wires, a V-shaped balance beam the whole team has to negotiate while holding a huge 2×4, a mud pit where the teams have to collect mud on their bodies and dump it in a bucket, and then a massive game of beer pong where each team member has to sink a shot into a big cup. The first team to finish wins $5000.

The bottom two teams have to battle it out in an elimination round, called “Loser’s Last Stand.” In the first episode, members from each team wear a blindfold and bells, and have to capture a flag on the other team member’s waist. The first to three points stays, and the losing team has to vote off one member to go home (once the teams are down to two members, though, the whole team will go home).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The structure of Buddy Games is a lot like The Challenge or Tough As Nails, except there’s a summer camp vibe.

Our Take: Duhamel created Buddy Games and is an executive producer, and a lot of the show’s vibe flows from him. He has that same goofy, regular-guyish charm that made him a star, and it’s endearing when he wears a t-shirt that says “TEST DUMMY” on it and tries out the challenges himself before subjecting the teams to them. He is actually covered in mud as he introduces and does play-by-play on the obstacle course.

The challenges in Buddy Games are supposed to be goofy and fun, because that’s the kind of stuff you did at summer camp or when you hung out with your friends. In fact, the whole summer camp vibe of the show is welcome, given how other shows feel more cold and cutthroat. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to get some good old-fashioned team infighting, though we wonder if some of that seen in the season highlights is more hyped up than what actually happens.

What we liked the most about the show is that there seems to be a summer camp kind of camaraderie between the teams, even if they’re competing for a big prize, and that some of the teams are just happy to be hanging out with their buddies like they used to, given how adult life often gets in the way of that. Is the show silly? Sure. But silly is a good thing sometimes.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The team that had to eliminate a member talks about how the team that threw the curveball now has a target on their backs.

Sleeper Star: We liked Team Deby Squad — Melissa Berglund, Rachel Johnston, Shengul “Shaggy” Plummer and Jacky “Shu” Shu — mainly because they were the only ones who stripped in the curveball challenge. Shu didn’t even cover up when the team reached the finish line.

Most Pilot-y Line: When one of the teams said that their kids play beer pong — the kids’ version is “water pong” — we didn’t know whether we should have been horrified or jealous. Also, we have one question: If the team of three wins, does the fourth eliminated member get to split the money with the rest of the team?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Buddy Games is definitely goofy, and we wish some of the team infighting wasn’t part of the mix. But it’s still a fun show, and Duhamel is a host who isn’t afraid to get in the muck with the contestants.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.