Dero Escape

Dero Escape, informally known simply as Dero, is a Dryicoran game show broadcast on Channel 4 since late 2010. Introduced to Channel 4 primetime as a Christmas one-off at the same time as The Cube, both were incredibly popular, indirectly leading to the popular revival of The Crystal Maze, which Dero Escape is similar to.

It is based on the Japanese game show 密室謎解きバラエティー 脱出ゲームDERO! ("Unravel the mystery behind closed doors game variety DERO Escape!").

Gameplay
Three teams of six each play two or three games in a room. Each episode is split into three rounds. Each team plays their first round simultaneously, their second individually and the last, if they get through, simultaneously.

The start of a game is signalled by lights turning red and the camera zooming through a wire frame.

Round 1
Two contestants per team are told to stand on their wooden platform of three by a voiceover, before the floor the contestants are standing on collapses to reveal a seemingly bottomless pit, made by camera trickery. A graphic explains the game to the viewers before it starts.

Teams are asked a series of visual puzzles of four kinds. Their wooden platform retracts at a rate of 2cm per second that they don't shout out the right answer. Each team has a plunger they can use for grip, and a team is entitled to pass once. The last team standing receives a point for each team member left standing. Each team must answer the same amount of questions (i.e. if Team B is the only one standing after Team A all fell after 5 questions, Team B must also answer a fifth question). When a contestant falls, the viewer is shown a black and white replay of their fall.

Round 1 Visual Questions

 * Object Letter: A picture is displayed with each part replaced by words created in a WordArt-like manner that relate to the object in question.
 * Hidden Picture: A graphic is displayed with an object hidden in a styled pattern. As time passes, the picture may refocus or be modified to help the contestants, though the platform gets smaller as they wait.
 * Celebrity Quiz: Two pictures of celebrities are shown, yet one can only see half of each at a time. The focus point revolves around a square, so you see enough of the picture to guess both celebrities.
 * Word Blocks: A word is displayed as a 3D picture on an angle made up of blocks of differing heights.

These four games are played in a random order until a winner is found.

The winning team member(s) is/are allowed to leave the room via exiting on the floor.

Round 2
This game is not played simultaneously. Each team member is led into a small room with a timebomb in each. Each team member is supplied with a pair of pliers and an earpiece to communicate with their teammates. Each room has two answers linked to wires, and the team is asked 3 multiple-choice questions. The team must work to come up with an answer, and the player who has the answer cuts the required wire. If they're wrong, the player who cut the wrong wire is blasted in the face with carbon dioxide and is eliminated from the entire game.

The next game involves a corridor 15m in length, with the contestants chained to the floor by the foot. A CGI monster is at the other end. The contestants are dragged close to the monster and then race to three panels which block off the rest of the corridor, each with a word puzzle whilst the monster moves closer by 5cm per second spent by the team working out the puzzle (yet slows down when getting closer to the team). If a team member feels the monster is getting too close, he/she can turn around and punch the monster on the nose to send him back to 3m from its cage, yet if they do so, the team member is eaten by the monster and is out of the game. If the monster gets within 50cm from the team, all of the team are out.

If the contestants solve all three panel puzzles, they go into the next room, which is shrinking as the remaining team member(s) is/are harnessed to the walls. They can look through a screen to see the rest of the team and through the screen they see the requirements for answering 3 multiple-choice questions. They must then press one of two buttons either side of them. If all three agree on the right answer 3 times, one is released to partake in the Keybox Challenge 15m away.

To unlock the door in the Safe Zone and escape, three keys are required. In the corridor between the danger area and the safe zone is a perspex container containing lengthy keys which the player has 30 seconds to use rods to pick up from one tube and drop through the other. If the player thinks they have time, they can go for more than one, as three are required in total. The player then has to put the rods in a "keybox" next to them. After 30 seconds the walls of the corridor connecting the Keybox Challenge and the main Round 2 game close, and the player is either squished by the walls and is out, stays in the Keybox Challenge and is out, or they get out with all 3 keys in and win 5 points.

Now the team with the lowest overall score is eliminated, and the other two teams proceed to the final Round 2 game.

The remaining teams are chained to a wall with a ceiling initially 3m high, dropping 1cm every three seconds. In the first puzzle, the contestants have to do sumo wrestling (a nod to the Japanese original), with a CGI puppet sumo referee next to them and visible on the viewers' screens officiating. After this puzzle, two more are shown giving two more hints as to the location of a key, usually to do with wordplay. In the room there is also a phone, which allows the players 30 seconds to call teammates previously eliminated to ask for advice.

After working out a puzzle, the team must use the key to open a door to freeze the ceiling. There they take part in the Airduct Challenge. The player must hit one of three buttons, A, B or C, to unlock a key to rescue a teammate. The ceiling restarts and the contestants must work out which teammate their key frees. Said teammate must crawl through the airduct and lift up a panel to escape. After the airduct contestant hits a button to get out, we then see if they beat the ceiling to it.

Round 3
The last round is similar but instead of the ceiling coming down the room fills up with water. The contestants find keys by solving puzzles, with the final box having a combination lock (the hints give the solution eventually). As before, the teams are allowed a 30-second phone call to previously-eliminated teammates.

After this, they must play the Last Answer Quiz, which challenges the team to find three correct answers to three questions with 5 possible answers to win 500 000 Kr. The water restarts, and if they find three correct answers within the time limit, they win the 500 000 Kr. However, if the team answer incorrectly, they are given a 30-second time penalty while the water fills up, in addition to losing 50 000 Kr from the prize fund for every incorrect answer given.

The team with the most points wins 500 000 Kr.

Reception
Dero Escape was originally aired as a one-off programme on Christmas Day 2010. Critics liked the programme yet suggested it was unusually complicated for a primetime game show. However, viewers gave it rave reviews, and it returned for a series in November 2011. Executive producer Reijo Valkoikas told Channel 4 News that "we were just taking the set down when Channel 4 said they wanted a series. So we had to build it back up again."

Dero Escape continues to enjoy a good reception, with Series 9 averaging 17 million viewers. Channel 4 have said that a series will not be filmed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that "It is incredibly difficult to make a set for a show on the scale of Dero Escape COVID-secure, and as such we have decided not to film any new episodes of Dero Escape in 2020. However, when the time is right, Dero Escape will return to its former glory on Channel 4."

Australia

 * The has broadcast all four versions with English subtitles since 2014.

Canada

 * has broadcast all four versions with English subtitles since 2015.

Estonia

 * broadcasts the Finnish-language version and airs the Icelandic and Norwegian versions with Estonian subtitles. It will also air the Welsh version with Estonian subtitles in December 2020.

Finland

 * has broadcast the Finnish-language version since 2014. It also broadcasts the Icelandic version with Finnish subtitles around a month after it is aired.
 * also airs repeats in the early afternoon.

Iceland

 * simulcasts the Icelandic version and broadcasts the Finnish and Norwegian versions with Icelandic subtitles.

Ireland

 * broadcasts the British feed to the Republic of Ireland.

New Zealand

 * has broadcast all four versions with English subtitles since 2012.

Norway

 * broadcasts the Norwegian version about a month after its Dryicoran broadcast.

South Africa

 * has broadcast all four versions of the show with English subtitles since 2013.

Sweden

 * broadcasts the Finnish-language version with Swedish subtitles and the Norwegian version with Swedish subtitles.

United Kingdom

 * broadcast all four versions of the show with English subtitles from 2012 until 2019. It continues to air repeats on.
 * airs the Welsh-language version and airs repeats in the early afternoon.

United States

 * has regularly broadcast repeats of the show from 2014.