Television series

Cannonball

Name: Cannonball
Released: 2020
Cast: Mike Mizanin, Rocsi Diaz, Simon Gibson

Action
Light-hearted
Relentless

Cannonball is a high-energy competition series where sixteen contestants tackle increasingly brutal water-and-physics-based challenges each episode, with one walking away richer. It's pure spectacle: people flying through the air, slamming into obstacles, getting soaked and humiliated on camera. For viewers who want to watch strangers suffer entertainingly without moral complexity.

TVMaze rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like cheerful, slightly ridiculous stunt competitions where the apparatus is the real star, and every big splash earns a laugh from the sofa.

Skip it if you want genuine athletic stakes, since the contests play more like silly spectacle than skill, and the hosts' chatter can wear thin over ten episodes.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about an hour and the structure is simple, with rounds stacking up so it works as easy background or a quick evening rather than something demanding.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

American Ninja Warrior2009

The gold standard of obstacle competition. It balances genuine athletic achievement with accessible storytelling about regular people chasing something hard. Emotionally satisfying in ways Cannonball isn't trying for.

But It's long-form and earnest where Cannonball is quick and disposable. If you want stakes and character depth, this demands a real commitment across seasons.

Wipeout2008

Gleeful, unpolished, designed purely for the joy of watching people face-plant into obstacles. Hosts who love the chaos rather than trying to add meaning. It understands what makes the genre tick.

But The humor is extremely broad and relies heavily on physical humiliation. If that's exhausting to you, there's no deeper layer underneath.

Physical: 1002023

A Korean competition series that treats the obstacle course seriously, with genuinely fit athletes and elegant challenge design. It finds drama in the details and creates real moments of tension.

But It's slower-paced and sometimes overly produced with dramatic music. If you want irreverent fun, this is too respectful of its own format.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cannonball

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Jackass2000

Both understand that the humor lives in the gap between what someone expects to happen and what actually does. Cannonball just sanitizes it.

The spiritual ancestor of Cannonball: people attempting dangerous stunts for the camera, failure treated as comedy, editing that prioritizes the moment of impact. But with anarchic spirit Cannonball's polish erases. Ragged, genuinely risky, genuinely funny.

But It's deliberately crude and the humor is extremely aggressive. If you want challenges that feel remotely fair or safe, this is the opposite. Many bits haven't aged well.

Survivor2000

The original template for watching people compete in staged challenges for money. It builds drama over time through eliminations and relationships. Addictive television that defined a genre.

But It's a massive time investment—seasons run long and the pacing can drag. The social game sometimes overshadows the physical competition.

The Floor2024

Competition series hosted by Ray Combs with a clean, clever format: contestants answer trivia while physically occupying sections of a game board. Smart puzzle-solving with accessible stakes.

But It relies on trivia knowledge rather than pure physicality or spectacle. If you're here for people getting launched into water, this isn't it.

Ellen's Game of Games2017

A variety of rapid-fire games and challenges, some physical, many hilarious. Keeps momentum high and doesn't take itself seriously. Efficiently entertaining.

But It's deliberately lightweight and scattered. There's no building drama or real stakes, just a parade of distractions.

The Toys That Made Us2017

Cannonball is essentially a grown-up version of water toy fantasy—the engineering, the spectacle, the promise of chaos you can control. This explains where that impulse comes from.

A Netflix documentary series about toy lines, one episode about water guns and pool toys. It traces how the same desire for splash-and-chaos has been marketed to children for decades. Unexpectedly fascinating about the design philosophy behind Cannonball's DNA.

But It's a documentary, not a competition. If you want active entertainment rather than cultural analysis, this is sitting still while someone explains something to you.