The Runner (partially lost go90 reality show; 2016)
The show's promotional poster.
Status: Partially Lost
The Runner was a reality show on the streaming service go90 that premiered on July 1st, 2016, hosted by Matthew Patrick (Game Theory) and Kaj Larsen (Vice News). The show was streamed live 3 times a day for 20-30 minutes per episode on the go90 website and app at 12pm, 3pm, and 10pm EST[1]. The show only aired for one season and concluded at the end of July 2016.
The show consisted of 5 "Chase Teams" each with two people chasing down a designated anonymous "Runner" across the United States over the month of July. A timer begins when the runner is released and the longer the timer runs, the more money the chase team wins when they catch the runner. When a runner is caught, a new runner is selected from a pool and the timer is restarted. The show revolved heavily around utilizing social media and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) to solve clues, and viewers of the show were incentivized with cash prizes to assist their favorite chase teams in solving clues[2].
History
The Runner was first pitched to ABC by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in November of 2000[3] and was put on indefinite hold after the 9/11 terror attacks[4]. The show was then in development at Yahoo in 2006 but was never greenlit, and once again was shelved. Finally, in March of 2016, the show was announced to release on Verizon's free mobile-oriented streaming platform, go90[5].
Production
The show was released on July 1st, 2016 to mixed reviews. While people were entertained there were issues that arose during production that had to be dealt with sometimes live on camera. Audio problems with the live studio segments were common, and due to time and space constraints, much of the on-location recordings were done with crew members' iPhones to speed up the editing process[6].
The show originally intended to have 1 primary runner with a new one introduced if they were caught early, and 5 chase teams following them. However, after the first two runners were caught on Days 7 and 16 respectively, they were quickly paired up and added as another chase team. Additionally, the identity of the runners is supposed to be anonymous in order to force chase teams to rely more on technology and clues to capture them, and any videos of the runners have their faces obscured or censored. However, the quick editing turnaround time led to a mistake in the first episode of Day 11, where the second runner's face was left unblurred for 1 frame of video.
A final notable problem that occured was when the last runner was captured by mistake live on the first episode of the final day, which led to the entire 2-part planned finale and finish line having to be scrapped and improvised live. As of currently, these final two episodes have not been recovered.
A second season was confirmed but never happened before go90 ceased operations[7].
Availability
Each episode was available to watch on-demand in the go90 app or on the website as soon as each daily stream completed. However, once go90 shut down operations in 2018, the show was not sold or transferred to any other streaming services like others on the platform. 21 complete archived streams of episodes remain on the show's official Facebook page[8], and in December of 2020, the YouTube channel The Runner Archive uploaded all 30 episodes[9], with only the final two episodes of the final day missing.
Direct emails to contacts at Verizon have led to reports of a search for archived copies of the missing episodes, but responses indicate that the CDN service for go90 was not owned by Verizon and once the contract expired after go90 ceased operations, files in the CDN were removed and overwritten.
Episode List
Below are all of the episodes produced and their availability status.
| # | Air Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 1, 2016 | Found |
| 2 | July 1, 2016 | Found |
| 3 | July 1, 2016 | Found |
| 4 | July 2, 2016 | Found |
| 5 | July 2, 2016 | Found |
| 6 | July 2, 2016 | Found |
| 7 | July 3, 2016 | Found |
| 8 | July 3, 2016 | Found |
| 9 | July 3, 2016 | Found |
| 10 | July 4, 2016 | Found |
| 11 | July 4, 2016 | Found |
| 12 | July 4, 2016 | Found |
| 13 | July 5, 2016 | Found |
| 14 | July 5, 2016 | Found |
| 15 | July 5, 2016 | Found |
| 16 | July 6, 2016 | Found |
| 17 | July 6, 2016 | Found |
| 18 | July 6, 2016 | Found |
| 19 | July 7, 2016 | Found |
| 20 | July 7, 2016 | Found |
| 21 | July 7, 2016 | Found |
| 22 | July 8, 2016 | Found |
| 23 | July 8, 2016 | Found |
| 24 | July 8, 2016 | Found |
| 25 | July 9, 2016 | Found |
| 26 | July 9, 2016 | Found |
| 27 | July 9, 2016 | Found |
| 28 | July 10, 2016 | Found |
| 29 | July 10, 2016 | Found |
| 30 | July 10, 2016 | Found |
| 31 | July 11, 2016 | Found |
| 32 | July 11, 2016 | Found |
| 33 | July 11, 2016 | Found |
| 34 | July 12, 2016 | Found |
| 35 | July 12, 2016 | Found |
| 36 | July 12, 2016 | Found |
| 37 | July 13, 2016 | Found |
| 38 | July 13, 2016 | Found |
| 39 | July 13, 2016 | Found |
| 40 | July 14, 2016 | Found |
| 41 | July 14, 2016 | Found |
| 42 | July 14, 2016 | Found |
| 43 | July 15, 2016 | Found |
| 44 | July 15, 2016 | Found |
| 45 | July 15, 2016 | Found |
| 46 | July 16, 2016 | Found |
| 47 | July 16, 2016 | Found |
| 48 | July 16, 2016 | Found |
| 49 | July 17, 2016 | Found |
| 50 | July 17, 2016 | Found |
| 51 | July 17, 2016 | Found |
| 52 | July 18, 2016 | Found |
| 53 | July 18, 2016 | Found |
| 54 | July 18, 2016 | Found |
| 55 | July 19, 2016 | Found |
| 56 | July 19, 2016 | Found |
| 57 | July 19, 2016 | Found |
| 58 | July 20, 2016 | Found |
| 59 | July 20, 2016 | Found |
| 60 | July 20, 2016 | Found |
| 61 | July 21, 2016 | Found |
| 62 | July 21, 2016 | Found |
| 63 | July 21, 2016 | Found |
| 64 | July 22, 2016 | Found |
| 65 | July 22, 2016 | Found |
| 66 | July 22, 2016 | Found |
| 67 | July 23, 2016 | Found |
| 68 | July 23, 2016 | Found |
| 69 | July 23, 2016 | Found |
| 70 | July 24, 2016 | Found |
| 71 | July 24, 2016 | Found |
| 72 | July 24, 2016 | Found |
| 73 | July 25, 2016 | Found |
| 74 | July 25, 2016 | Found |
| 75 | July 25, 2016 | Found |
| 76 | July 26, 2016 | Found |
| 77 | July 26, 2016 | Found |
| 78 | July 26, 2016 | Found |
| 79 | July 27, 2016 | Found |
| 80 | July 27, 2016 | Found |
| 81 | July 27, 2016 | Found |
| 82 | July 28, 2016 | Found |
| 83 | July 28, 2016 | Found |
| 84 | July 28, 2016 | Found |
| 85 | July 29, 2016 | Found |
| 86 | July 29, 2016 | Found |
| 87 | July 29, 2016 | Found |
| 88 | July 30, 2016 | Found |
| 89 | July 30, 2016 | Lost |
| 90 | July 30, 2016 | Lost |
Gallery
References
- ↑ https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2016/07/the-runner-reality-show-guide/
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-win-money-watching-the-runner-2016-7#-1
- ↑ https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2000/11/the-runner-ben_affleck_pitches/
- ↑ https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2001/10/the-runner-the_runner_on_hold/
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/03/ben-affleck-matt-damon-reality-series-the-runner-verizon-go90-1201721318/
- ↑ https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2016/07/the-runner-reality-show-guide/
- ↑ https://www.argn.com/2016/07/set_aside_the_month_of_july_for_the_runner/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/therunnergo90/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@therunnerarchive5459/videos