You Got This! pits bubble against bubble in family fun challenges with no risk of overlap. Tara Ward gives us a few of the challenges she’s done with her own family during lockdown.
Gather all ye wooden spoons and empty boxes and prepare to enjoy You Got This!, a new show that sees Kiwi families go head-to-head in a series of wacky lockdown challenges using materials found lying around the house. Whether it’s making marble tracks out of garage junk or whipping up a waterslide in the kitchen, You’ve Got This! embraces the idea that you don’t need to leave the house to have fun, something us introverts have been quietly murmuring to ourselves for some time now.
You Got This! is the perfect storm of television, an unpredictable half-hour of mad ideas, hard-case Kiwi families, and the chance to peek inside other people’s houses without being arrested for it. Plus, the show is hosted by the delightful Bree Tomasel, who knows from running the kooky challenges on Celebrity Treasure Island that great entertainment comes from simple things (Forky Coiny, I will never forget you. Coins! Rolled into a fork! Genius).
These are challenging times, and if you can’t tackle a few crazy challenges now while you’re doing nothing (apart from paid employment, domestic work, caring for others, supporting distance learning, and surviving one of the most difficult and exhausting times you’ll ever experience), then when can you? I asked myself the same question during lockdown and here were my answers.
Challenge: Watch every episode of The Chase
Result: The Chaser has been caught
The Chase is appointment viewing at the best of times, but during lockdown it’s been a shining beacon of hope that marks the invisible finish line of another day done. If it’s four o’clock, then it’s nearly five o’clock, and if it’s five o’clock? It’s time for The Chase. Every night Bradley Walsh beams into my lounge, heart and soul, filling my weary brain with useless facts that I will forget by the ad break. What do you do to relax, Tara? I stay at home and watch The Chase, Bradley, thanks for asking.
Challenge: Make a blanket fort
Result: I now own several properties
Look, my kids did all the heavy lifting but I was definitely site manager and also in charge of HR and therefore will take all the credit.
Challenge: Cut my own hair
Result: Nothing a thousand bobby pins can’t fix
I once went to a hairdresser who promised me a new look involving “a fringe under a fringe”. Reader, it did not end well. A fringe under a fringe is not a thing, so I went into this lockdown hair challenge knowing the worst had already happened. One pair of blunt scissors and a few YouTube tutorials later, and it’s… fine. I have hats. It’s not like I failed to make a sourdough starter, or anything really embarrassing.
Challenge: Make a sourdough starter
Result: Go straight to jail, do not pass Go
It seems so easy. “Just put this dough in the oven,” a million shiny influencers promised, “and in 20 minutes, your life will change. You’ll be a better person. Your adult acne will disappear. Your entire life’s worth rides on this hot pocket of crusty deliciousness, which any fool can make, especially you.”
Lies. I dedicated four days of my life to chucking flour, water and empty prayers into a jar of hopes and dreams, before forgetting about it and discovering a stinky jar of thick sludge in my hot water cupboard two weeks later. FYI, the supermarket sells bread.
Challenge: Do a deep dive into the life and times of Dr Ashley Bloomfield
Result: Kia ora koutou katoa and welcome to today’s briefing
If it’s work-related stalking, it’s allowed, right?
Challenge: Get a gym body
Result: No
I fancied a lockdown transformation that involved daily Les Mills TV workouts, regular YouTube yoga sessions, ritualistic skincare, and maybe a grand staircase and a sequin gown in a room full of family and friends gasping “what an incredible specimen of physicality!” Alas, my only workout has been my right elbow bending as I shovel more food into my gob while my other hand scrolls through photos of happy sourdough starters. My elbow has never looked better. Make of that what you will.
Challenge: Superglue all the broken crap in my house back together
Result: We have a winner
Superglue? More like SUPERHERO. I even started breaking stuff, just to glue it back together. Everyone loves a happy ending.
Challenge: Finally read The Luminaries
Result: Still two weeks of lockdown to go, anything can happen
There’s no hurry, right?
You can watch You Got This! at 7pm on TVNZ 2 tonight (April 30).
This content was created in paid partnership with TVNZ. Learn more about our partnerships here.