Celebrity Deathmatch

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Celebrity Deathmatch was a game show that ran on MTV for several years in the late 1990's and early 2000's. It was a spin-off of Death Match, which saw pairs or groups of people with long-standing grudges fight to the death for valuable prizes, including an all-expenses-paid trip to... somewhere in the Caribbean, I know that much. Guara... Garan... Gwar... eh, we'll just say Jamaica.

The show died a quick death, but was revived after the decision was made to create a celebrity version. Audiences enjoyed the concept now that they knew the contestants going in. MTV soon was able to afford Supreme Court Justice Mills Lane to referee the matches.

However, the producers became greedy, and began to allow losing contestants who had undergone life-restoration surgery (which you personally cannot have because you are not rich and famous) to compete again. Audiences soured because the high stakes of the contests were no longer as high. When a match between former Survivors Colleen Haskell and Rupert Boneham ended with Haskell prompting Boneham to "stop hitting himself," riots broke out inside the Death Match Arena. The show was cancelled two weeks later.

Much like the celebrities who fought in the Death Match Arena, however, Celebrity Deathmatch refused to go quietly. In 2006, new episodes turned up on the MTV2 network. Because of the unpopularity of MTV2 (due to their insistence on occasionally showing music videos), few people noticed or cared.