Editing Praetorian Championship (TV show)

{{Infobox television
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| native_name          = <!-- {{Infobox name module|language|title}} or {{Infobox name module|title}} -->
| genre                = Reality game show
| creator              = 
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| developer            = 
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| presenter            = Clyde Burton<br>Samuel Pembroke
| starring             = <!-- Organized by broadcast credit order, with new main cast added to the end of the list -->
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| country              = [[Libertas Omnium Maximus]]
| language             = English
| num_seasons          = 25
| num_episodes         = 619
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| camera               = <!-- Either Single-camera or Multi-camera -->
| runtime              = 22 minutes
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| network              = FBS II
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| first_aired          = {{Start date|1998|09|30}}
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}}The '''Praetorian Championship''' is a controversial [[Maximusian]] daytime television reality game show which has aired since 1998. Taking its name from the ''Praetorian Grenadiers'', an elite Iustitian republican army company which fought to the last man during the [[Iustitian Civil War]], contestants on the show complete in a series of timed physical challenges each week meant to simulate real life combat and survival scenarios. 

==History==
Originally started as a purely recreational, tongue-and-cheek competition by Clyde Burton, at the time an undergraduate lighting and sound design student at Elizabeth Public College, along with a number of his close friends in 1990, the championship was eventually picked up by FBS in 1997. The first episode, "End of Your Rope," aired on September 8, 1998. Despite subsequent claims by both the network and Burton, Burton was quoted in the EPC school newspaper in 1991 saying, "In truth, I started [Praetorian Championship] as a joke. It was a way to get all my drunk friends to do really dumb stunts for my amusement." As the show grew in popularity throughout the early 2000s, its budget burgeoned, leading to obstacles becoming increasingly absurd and grandiose (often featuring very real pyrotechnic elements). Burton left the show in 2009, believing that weekly scenarios were becoming technically easier and genuine challenge was being substituted for "smoke and mirrors" theatrics in order to increase viewership.

==Format==
Each season, 24 contestants, usually college-age men and women, compete in a series of timed challenges to become the eponymous Praetorian Champion. Each episode contains two self contained challenges, referred to as "the hard challenge" and "the harder challenge." During the "hard challenge," contestants compete for advantages in the "harder challenge." The contestant who finishes the "hard challenge" in the least amount of time is exempt from the "harder challenge," instead being tasked with harassing the other contestants (often with a paintball gun or fire hose). The last contestant to compete the "harder challenge" is eliminated. This process continues each week until only two contestants remain for the season finale. The season finale abandons the time-challenge format, opting for a head-to-head foot race through an obstacle course. Eliminated contestants are invited back to throw tennis balls at the finalists as the complete their last challenge. The winner of the final challenge is given the honors of "striking the set," literally detonating that season's obstacle course using explosives. In 2018, the "striking-of-the-set" marked the largest non-military detonation of explosives in Libertas Omnium Maximus. 

Both finalists are awarded <small>M</small>$50,000 in prize money, while the winner of the final challenge is given a gag-award and the title of Praetorian Championship. Gag awards in the past have included a pyramid of light beer, a twenty-foot tall inflatable lawn ornament depicting a duck wearing a beret, and an industrial scale potato launcher. Praetorian Champions are also given the opportunity to "double or nothing" their winnings by competing the next season, though no champion has accepted the offer to date.

[[categories: Libertas Omnium Maximus]]