Miranda Harrison has done all sorts of silly things on new TV game show “99 To Beat.”
She’s crammed an entire roll of unraveled duct tape into a lunch box. She’s melted a block of ice to get the whistle inside. She’s jerked and twerked her body to make a disc slide down a stretched-out spring.
The Fort Myers exterminator never knew what challenge the show’s producers would throw at her next.
But she was down for whatever.
“There was a potato fork,” says Harrison, 32. “I mean, come on! You throw a potato and you gotta catch it on the fork.
“All these competitions, I’m like ‘Bro, this is awesome. I can do this!’”
So far, Harrison has survived many silly challenges in the first three episodes of the FOX show. She’s now in the Top 60 remaining contestants, and she’ll be back for the show’s fourth episode this Wednesday, Oct. 15.
“Who wouldn’t want to go play these games?” she says. “It was such an amazing experience.”
After ‘Deal or No Deal Island,’ she’s back for more on ’99 To Beat’
This is actually Harrison’s second time competing on a major TV competition. She won $50,000 in 2024 on “Deal Or No Deal Island.”
The new hit series “99 To Beat” features Harrison and several other former game-show and reality-show contestants.
In its own way, she says, “99 To Beat” is just as difficult and challenging as “Deal or No Deal Island.”
“There’s little games that they give you,” she says. “And it’s like, ‘OK, you’re going to do a house of cards.’ And I’m like, ‘Holy crap, I’ve never built a house of cards! What are you talking about?’”
The show’s “Squid Game”-like premise –— minus the killing, of course — starts with 99 contestants who must finish various goofy challenges to advance. Every time someone gets eliminated, the pot of money grows until it eventually reaches $1 million.
The one big rule for each challenge: Don’t finish last.
“99 To Beat” is based on an international hit of the same name. It’s hosted by actor/comedian Ken Jeong and sportscaster/TV personality Erin Andrews.
The U.S. version of the show started filming in May 2025, Harrison says. Show rules prevent her from saying how she did, but she says she’s happy with the outcome.
Whatever you do, don’t panic
“99 To Beat” features people from all walks of life and all different ages and backgrounds. And once Harrison realized that, she says, she started to feel better about her chances. You’re bound to be better at some challenges than others.
“You start to realize that even if you come in second to last, you’re still not last,” she says. “I just didn’t want to be last.”
Her constant mantra throughout the competition: No matter what happens, stay calm.
“You can literally ruin the whole game by freaking out,” she says. “You’ve got to keep moving. … It tested more than just skill. It pushed my ability to stay calm focused and somewhat composed.”
It wasn’t always easy, she admits. But she did her best to brush aside the stress and just enjoy herself.
“You had extreme anxiety, because every day was elimination,” she says. “You have to try to make yourself have fun, because the anxiety could definitely take it away.”
It helped that she loved hanging out with her fellow competitors.
“The people are so awesome,” she says. “There were so many different characters and personalities, and you would think that there’d be so much animosity in some way.
“But it was pretty cordial, and it was pretty awesome.”
How to watch ‘99 To Beat’
New game show “99 to Beat” airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on FOX. It also streams the next day on Hulu.
For show clips and more information, visit fox.com/detail/series/SER262466VNUE/99-to-beat.
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. For news tips or other entertainment-related matters, call him at 239-335-0368 or at crunnells@gannett.com. Also connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Crazy games on new TV show ’99 To Beat’? SWFL’s Miranda Harrison is down for it
Reporting by Charles Runnells, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
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