Scrapheap Challenge: Difference between revisions

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<b><i>JunkyardScrapheap WarsChallenge</i></b> (known as ''Junkyard Wars'' in the United States) is a [[reality television]] program shown on the [[BBC]] and [[The Learning Channel]]. In theThe UK,game theshow programfeatures iscontestants calledusing ''Scrapheapmaterials Challenge'';available ''Junkyardin Wars''a andjunkyard ''Scrapheapto Challenge''build areworking inmachines factthat can do a specific task. At the sameend showof witheach episode, the machines are pitted against each other in a differentcontest to determine the titlewinner.

Episodes generally consist of two four-person teams in competition, plus one or two hosts who usually consult with an "expert" judge who knows something about non-junk versions of the machines being constructed. Each team consists of three regular members, plus a fourth expert who usually has a better understanding of the class of machine being constructed for that episode.

In each episode, two teams of three persons each get ten hours to build a working machine out of things found in a junkyard. Then the machines are raced to determine which is that episode's "winner". Each team is supplied an expert in that particular class of machines to help them design and build the machine; another expert serves as a judge.

The idea for the show came from a scene in the movie ''[[Apollo 13 (movie)|Apollo 13]]'', where NASA engineers had only a short period of time to construct an air filter out of parts available on the space capsule.

''Scrapheap Challenge'' originated on the [[BBC]], but was imported to United States television under the name ''Junkyard Wars.'' Later, an American version of the show was created with the same name.

In the UK, the two programs have distinct names, but American audiences only see the ''Junkyard Wars'' title. Sometimes, video of the UK version is even edited to blot out the name ''Scrapheap Challenge.''