Amazon Turns Fallout Into Reality TV Show

As Ella Purnell's Fallout TV series gears up for Season 3, Amazon is apparently taking its Fallout universe in a new direction by turning the Fallout Shelter vault-management game into a reality competition show called Fallout Shelter: The Experiment.

Fallout Shelter: The Experiment promises an intense competition inspired by the franchise's post-apocalyptic world. "Everyday participants" will put their survival skills to the test inside Vault-Tec's state-of-the-art, bomb-proof vault shelters, facing a series of "high-octane drills, psychological dilemmas and morally challenging behavior trials". Only one dweller walks away with the ultimate prize of $1 million.

It's pretty ironic, considering the vaults' whole point was to run social experiments, so either the show completely missed that, or there's some meta-commentary on reality TV itself. The season will feature 10 episodes, with the first four dropping on January 13, 2027, followed by three new episodes each week until January 27.

Fallout Shelter: The Experiment is made by Studio Lambert, also responsible for Squid Game: The Challenge, in co-production with Kilter Films, best known for HBO's hit series Westworld, and Bethesda Game Studios. Todd Howard, Bethesda Game Studios' longtime director, also serves as an executive producer on the show.

What do you think of Fallout Shelter: The Experiment? Would you be watching it?

We don't know if Squid Game had anything to do with it, but Netflix is also getting into the social experiment reality TV trend with The New Stanford Prison Experiment:

Microsoft and Xbox are clearly putting more focus on Fallout as part of a wider "reset" led by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. With the franchise celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2027, fans can expect plenty more. Remasters of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are in development, Fallout 5 is in pre-production, and Obsidian is reportedly working on a new standalone Fallout game.