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By Movieguide® Staff
Netflix has found its next reality concept in a place most producers overlooked: the kindergarten classroom.
“This isn’t the Simon you remember from recess,” the streamer promised Thursday, announcing SIMON SAYS, a new competition series scheduled to debut in 2027. It’s a childhood staple, grown up fast.
Based on the classic playground game, SIMON SAYS will put contestants through rounds of challenges that go well beyond “pat your head.” Players navigate a gauntlet of mind games, unexpected pivots and real pressure — all chasing what Netflix calls “a life-changing prize.”
“One rule remains the same: if Simon says it, you’d better listen,” the streamer said of the series’ central mechanic. But blind compliance won’t carry anyone to the finish line.
Players must constantly calculate when to follow orders and when to defy them. Compliance keeps a contestant alive for one more round, but every choice carries consequences. The show’s real question — how much you trust authority, when you push back and what it costs you — sits closer to philosophy than playground.
Related: Is Netflix Spying on You?
Showrunner Emer Harkin, whose credits include MTV’s long-running THE CHALLENGE franchise and BUDDY GAMES, will lead production. Executive producers Julie Pizzi, Rupert Dobson and Gayani Wanigaratne round out the team at Bunim/Murray Productions, part of Banijay Americas.
Bunim/Murray built its reputation largely through THE CHALLENGE, a franchise running in various forms since the late 1990s. The series has always been as much about psychological pressure and social strategy as physical endurance. Movieguide® has covered the franchise before, including reporting on cast members who described the experience as life-changing in ways that had little to do with prize money.
SIMON SAYS joins a Netflix unscripted lineup that has made a habit of betting big on clever or slightly absurd premises. FLOOR IS LAVA, IS IT CAKE?, SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE, THE GOLDEN TICKET,and WIN THE MALL all belong to the same creative tradition — and all have found genuine audiences.
Netflix has not yet announced who will inhabit the central role of Simon, the authority figure contestants must either obey or outmaneuver. No specific premiere date, prize amount or cast has been revealed beyond the 2027 launch window.
For families evaluating the show: the concept is as benign as television gets at its core — it’s built from a children’s game. The real question is what Netflix does with that premise once production rolls. The streamer’s psychological competition entries range from genuinely playful (IS IT CAKE?) to relentlessly intense (SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE), and a show organized around obedience, defiance, and consequences could land anywhere on that spectrum.
Movieguide® will track SIMON SAYS as production gets underway and will return with a full review before the 2027 premiere.
Read Next: SQUID GAME: THE CHALLENGE Contestants Talk ‘Stressful’ Conditions
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