okay, filming this show was wild
we today hearing ‘nickelodeon’ think of the industry giant sitting uppon the golden hoard they squeezed out of spongebob over the last two decades, but at the time this show came out they were facing serious competition from, well, everybody including pbs. this was one of the spearhead projects they had, buckling down on the ‘for kids, by kids’ mindset by having gameshows that not only feature kid contestants but seem like they were dreamed up by kids as well
one of the cheats they did is that during one day they were actually filming three or more separate episodes, one team of kids would do the first section, then go to an arcade/lounge in back while the next team of kids used the hastily re-set first stage to cut down on having to setup. then all the cameramen are repositioned for round 2 and the teams are brought back to do the next part. this often meant those kids were trying to hold together for many hours, there was enough rest period for them to physically recover but not enough for them to mentally or emotionally get over having been filming stunts
there were multiple reasons behind this working- you at home might see over four episodes where all the maze sections look the same, and wonder why the kids didnt know ahead of time as obviously theyre on rotation. well that was the only day the maze was setup like that way, and there were purposefully deadends and guards in the most likely places for kids to pick, the loud countdown reminders also made the kids panic. the guards were kind of a dick move
yeah, it was setup specifically to freak kids out, as it was basically a speedrun haunted house.
also dont forget the kids had to collect medallion pieces, which were required to finish the challenge, however those medallion pieces could also be used to save themselves from a guard, which the show was relying on the kids doing to mean they couldnt finish