From Family Feud to Jeopardy to The Price is Right, to Deal or No Deal, and many more, game shows have been a fixture of network television programs for decades. However, most of today’s most popular game shows debuted years ago. Shows such as Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Minute to Win It had its success stories but quickly fizzled out.

FOX’s The Floor may be the next hit game show in America.

Debuting in January, The Floor, hosted by Rob Lowe, features 81 contestants on a 9X9 grid. Each contestant has a specific category they are an expert in. Categories include things like space, transportation, athletes, international foods, and political candidates. The spectrum creates a realm of possibilities.

The game started with the randomizer selecting a participant. Said participant then can challenge anybody to the left, right, behind, or in front of them to a “duel” in the category of the person that got challenged.

The rules of duels are as follows:

• Each duel has a 45-second time limit for each player.
• Players go back and forth identifying the correct answer in each scenario on the screen. Oftentimes, duels will feature pictures of people/objects participants have to identify. Sometimes, fill-in-the-blanks will occur where participants have to fill in the missing word of a book title or song lyric, for example.
• The challenger goes first in each duel.
• Participants get no penalty for a wrong answer and can continue guessing. They can “pass” through and move to the next problem. Passing does cause a three-second penalty to their time clock.
• Once the time clock hits zero, you lose and are eliminated from The Floor.

If the person that got challenged wins the duel, they inherit the category of the person they defeated.

After each duel, the winner takes over their space on the grid. Then, they can decide to stay up on stage and challenge another participant to another duel or go back to the floor. If the participant goes back to the floor, the randomizer will select another participant and the process will begin all over again. There are eight duels per every one-hour episode. At the end of each episode, whoever has the most pieces of territory on the floor wins 20,000. The last survivor on the floor will win the grand total prize of $250,000.

The concept is unique and causes you to really think on your feet. The 45-second time limit has forced many players to freeze up while participating and cost themselves a shot at the $250,000. It’s also interesting to see the strategy of the winners of each duel. Do they go back to the grid and play the long game or do they try to win the $20,000 at the end of the night?

The Floor has been a ratings success for FOX. As of Feb. 6, FOX has aired six episodes of the projected 10-episode first season of The Floor. According to Spoiler TV, the show has averaged 2.6 million viewers on Tuesday nights, the most for FOX on the night. The Floor is also averaging 0.45 in the 18-49 demographic, which is second-best among all shows on Tuesdays, only trailing Celebrity Jeopardy when it aired on Jan. 2, 9, 16, and 23 on ABC. FOX will take those numbers.

People are talking about The Floor and with its ratings, it’s almost a lock to return for Season 2, which would likely air in fall 2024. Whether it stays at its current slot or whether there will be twists in the game will be interesting to find out.

For now, I do know one thing: I’m hooked on The Floor, and you should be, too.

Set your DVRs for FOX at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday nights. It is also streaming the next day on Hulu.

View clips of The Floor here.