Kevin Hart is the king of chaos in fun game show Total Knock Out

Kevin Hart is everywhere you look. Movies, TV shows, TV adverts, stand-up. And now he’s tackling the world of game shows with his series Total Knock Out (TKO), hosting the obstacle-course reality show that forces contestants to bob and weave like a boxer, run and hurdle over speed bumps like an Olympic hurdler, and show the balance of a ballerina.

If they fall short in any of these athletic endeavours, game over!

And the more athletic the contestant, the bigger their fall from gaming glory, with Kevin shouting, “Ooooooooh I think that’s the biggest impact of the day,” as athletes go flying off balance beams. There are four main obstacle zones on the course:

• Ball Blaster – the contestants run across narrow ledges barely wide enough for their feet as Nerf balls are shot at them from cannons.
• Frisboom – giant frisbee discs are thrown at the contestants as they shimmy across a flexing bridge.
• Spike Launcher – soft spiky cubes are lobbed at the contestants as they hop across a series of moving pedestals.
• Slammer – two giant spinning cylinders test the contestants’ balance as they dodge giant swinging sledgehammers.

What are they fighting for? $100 000 in cash monies! Worth having Nerf blocks shot at your head? Absolutely!

Host with the most

Despite his short stature, Kevin is a man on a mission when it comes to his reality show. “I can totally knock your ass out, but I won’t do it!” he says.

So can Kevin run the gauntlet and deliver a TKO to his own show? “I wanted to do a show that would appeal to everyone. I wanted to do a show that would merge funny and physical fitness. You’re dodging all kinds of objects that are being thrown and the beauty of it is that it’s the people you’re competing against who’re throwing the stuff.”

Kevin actually did test out all the challenges on TKO “just to make sure that they’re safe”, although he prefers to be on the sending end of the projectiles.

“I don’t want anyone seeing my performance. Sorry buddy, I don’t want them to see my athleticism and think that what they did isn’t good! It’s just more fun watching people get knocked down and lying on the ground. I’m a little on the shorter side, so these projectiles can do a lot of damage to me,” says the host.

Best of the best

When putting the obstacle course together, Kevin and the production team focussed on fitness – the challenges should only each take 20 seconds to complete, but you can’t be a couch potato and expect to breeze though.

“Fitness is a lifestyle,” says Kevin, who posts his personal training sessions on his social media pages. “You can’t be working 16, 17-hour days and not be in a condition to withstand the physical demands. If you come here to TKO unprepared, you’re looking at three, four TKOs and no chance of the prize. You can’t do this half-assed.”

If you look closely, there are loads of safety features built into the games to ensure competitor safety. “Look, you’re going to get hit with flying objects and you’re going to go home with bumps and bruises. But you’re not going home in a wheelchair, you know? We want people to have fun and we’ve got medics on set. The worst injury so far is a bruised ego and wet ass when someone got knocked into the water on Slammer,” says Kevin.

While there’s only one season of the gameshow, it’s fun for the family to stream together. “We’re doing this for everyone and it’s fun. You could probably make your own TKO in the yard at home and knock out a family member at a barbecue. You know, that annoying aunty that knows everyone’s business. Just watch her walk and ‘BANG!’ across the head with a frisbee. I’m kidding – don’t try this at home. It’s for trained professionals only!”

Want more Kevin Hart?

• Ride Along (2014)
• Ride Along 2 (2016)
• About Last Night (2014)
• Think Like A Man Too (2014)