Buzz’d Out! The Game Show With It Roots In Pasadena

Buzz’d Out!, a game show featured on Pasadena’s Arroyo Channel, has been honored by The Hollywood Fringe Festival with a nomination in its “Best Immersive” show category for the live iteration of the game show, Buzz’d Out Live!

The show, which began in January, doesn’t just air on the Arroyo Channel, its roots are deeply entrenched in the area.

“Ben (Benjamins, co-creator) has been a resident of Pasadena for the past decade. For our crew, we have quite a few students from PCC who volunteer on our show either at the TV studio or during our Hollywood Fringe performances,” said Roe Moore, Buzz’d Out! co-creator.

“We use the Pasadena Media Studios to shoot the show. With their facilities and help, it allowed us to bring Buzz’d Out! to life. 21 Choices and Pizza Press in Pasadena sponsor us and provide prizes for the contestants that come on the show. Our contestants aren’t leaving empty handed—Pizza Press provides them with a pizza meal, and 21 Choices gives them a free froyo.”

Benjamins concurs. “It’s a very bootstrap community effort to produce the show. We have no outside funding. It’s all self-produced, and we put it together through the help of a lot of talented volunteers and a lot of hands on deck.”

Buzz’d Out! is unique in the game show world in that it combines mental and physical challenges—it’s fun, but not super easy. “Our contestants have to do some outrageous physical challenge in order to answer the (trivia) question. It’s essentially double dare for adults,” Benjamins said. “But, the show is incredibly difficult. I will make no bones about it. To combine those two aspects, you have to really have your head in the game to be a contestant on our show. It takes a lot of nerve and a lot of skill to come out on top as we’ve learned through producing more and more episodes.”

Buzz’d Out! has a total of five episodes in the can and two of its Hollywood Fringe shows will be airing on the Arroyo Channel in the next couple weeks. While Pasadena looms large over its production, the creators believe they have a decent shot at bringing Buzz’d Out! to national audiences. “We’re producing the show with the idea of getting it on YouTube Red, Netflix or a major network. Even though we make it for public access, using public access resources, people have told us and doesn’t look like local access at all. It’s very high production quality. Also, in doing the Hollywood Fringe, we’ve learned that Buzz’d Out! also works live,” Moore said.

Buzz’d Out Live! has been given an extension to perform two more shows over the Fourth of July weekend. To see or participate in the show at Hollywood Fringe on Friday, July 6 or Sunday, July 8, visit http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/5237 for tickets and additional information.

To watch Buzz’d Out! on the Arroyo Channel, visit http://www.pasadenamedia.org/channel/arroyo/.