The Big Flop

In 2013, a British TV producer named Danny Fenton brought 12 American women to England to take part in a new reality dating show. The yanks were led to believe that they had a chance to marry one of the most eligible bachelors in the world: Prince Harry of the British royal family. There was just one problem: the guy they were competing for was actually a Harry look-alike. Even though Fenton spent...

At the turn of the millenium, Blockbuster Video, with its ubiquitous blue-and-yellow stores, was the reigning champion of movie rentals. But early on, when presented with the chance to buy a little company called Netflix... Blockbuster made the wrong choice. Despite attempts to launch online rental services, the quaint allure of browsing store aisles couldn't compete with the instant gratification...

At 2:30AM on Thanksgiving night 2009, Tiger Woods, one of the most famous athletes in the world, drove his car into a tree outside his neighbor’s house. This bizarre accident set off a chain of events that exposed Tiger’s secret affairs to the world and wound up wrecking more than his Escalade: It wrecked his marriage, and almost totaled his career. Brooke Siffrinn and Aricia Skidmore-Williams fro...

Celebration, Florida was conceived by the Disney Corporation as a magical utopian community, something straight out of a fairy tale—meticulously planned, picturesque neighborhoods replete with ice cream parlors, bike paths, and state-of-the-art facilities. But the promise of living in a theme park soon became nauseating thanks to a greedy real estate developer, crumbling houses, rampant divorces a...

It was the nip slip seen round the world. Whether by accident or on purpose, the nation caught a brief glimpse of Janet Jackson’s breast on live television during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show while she was performing with Justin Timberlake. Quickly dubbed "Nipplegate," the incident ignited a firestorm of controversy and debate over broadcast decency standards and media regulation. It led to a...

Sam Bankman-Fried was the king of crypto, living large in a penthouse in the Bahamas. But his billion dollar empire was built on a foundation of fraud, and when his dubious deals were exposed, this crypto bro went from blockchain to a cell block. Fabrizio Copano (4th From the South) and Zoltan Kaszas (This Week in Zoltan, Honorary Jones) join Misha to decrypt how Sam Bankman-Fried lost his shirt--...

Billionaire Stockton Rush III dreamt of exploring the Titanic. Only problem? It's really freaking hard to get to. So he pieced together the world's shoddiest submersible built from Playstation parts and promised rich tourists a view of the Titanic for the price of $250,000. Less than two hours into the dive, Rush's dream quite literally imploded... taking 4 people with him. At least, according to...

Game Of Thrones entered its final season as the undisputed king of TV. Every Sunday, millions would take a seat in the church of HBO in hopes of witnessing another Battle of the Bastards. Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss needed to deliver a finale so grand it would make King’s Landing look like the Iron Islands. But when they were met with grueling night shoots, sloppy production mistakes, an...

Gigli would go down in history as not only one of the biggest box office bombs… but also the reason Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez broke up the first time. In 2001, Oscar nominated filmmaker Martin Brest penned the gritty tale of a lowlife mobster unable to escape his mundane existence, but by 2003 Gigli had been reverse engineered into a corny, sloppy, rom-com thanks to the Hollywood “it” couple...

How much do you think about the Roman Empire? Emperor Nero’s answer would have been “not that much.” At just 16 years old, Nero starts his reign off with a bang, throwing lavish festivals for the plebs and giving himself headlining gigs as an aspiring singer-songwriter. But thanks to a power-hungry mom, some heated rivalries, and a whole lot of sex with people who are not his wife, Nero goes down...

Figure skating rivals Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were set to face off at the 1994 Olympics... but Tonya decided to try and eliminate the competition a little early. When a botched attempt to “kneecap” Kerrigan before the Olympics led back to Tonya and her inner circle of inept criminals, Harding was thrust into a media frenzy that spiraled into a triple axel of chaos. Liza Treyger ( That's M...

Back in the day, Salem Village was awash in bad vibes. What started as a few stressed out colonial tweens messing around became a conspiracy of religious paranoia with townsfolk turning on each other quicker than Kendrick and Drake. Months of false testimony and baseless accusations in packed courtrooms resulted in death, ruin, and one of the most embarrassing judicial failures of all time. The co...

You know the Bronco chase, the trial and the glove, but do you know …the book? In 2006, O.J. Simpson teamed up with prominent publisher, Judith Regan, to make a killing from his controversial life story. With the help of a ghostwriter, they created a “hypothetical” tell-all book about the actual murders O.J. stood trial for. Thousands of copies were printed and a companion TV special was filmed. B...

In 1972, five clumsy burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. They were armed with tear gas pens, wads of cash, and enough surveillance equipment to make the NSA blush - and they were immediately caught. What could’ve been written off as the dumbest burglary in history swiftly unraveled through leaks from gossip queen Martha “Mouth of the South” Mi...

Before it became the butt of countless jokes and the preferred transportation for mall cops, the Segway had grand ambitions. Its inventor, Dean Kamen, believed his self-balancing, two-wheeled electric scooter would change the way we get around, and ultimately eliminate the need for cars all together. But when the rubber met the road and consumers met Segway’s slow speed, short battery life, and ge...

In the early 90’s, an earth shattering event occurred that would change the face of American culture forever: Coca-Cola changed their recipe. New Coke was supposed to be sweeter to combat the rising popularity of Pepsi, but the customer reaction was decidedly sour. Lawsuits and public outrage contributed to the PR Nightmare - somehow hiring Bill Cosby as their spokesperson wasn’t the worst busines...

When JCPenney, the 100-year-old department store, decided to rebrand in 2011, they sought the best in the biz to give them a makeover. Enter Ron Johnson, the affable retail genius behind the Apple Store. Hailed as a techy visionary, Johnson was supposed to reinvent the brand. Instead, he alienated customers with high prices and a baffling shopping experience. Martha Stewart and a tea kettle that s...

After 30 years of development, Procter & Gamble rolled out a new, calorie-free oil substitute with the luxurious name, Olestra. This “miracle food” was supposed to revolutionize junk food and allow snackers to eat all the chips and crackers they could cram down their gullets without gaining any weight. Unfortunately for Procter & Gamble, Olestra did not help them meet their bottom line. Di...

US Congressman George Santos was an inspiring embodiment of the American dream. A son of immigrants who worked his way through the finest universities, rose through the ranks of Wall Street and started his own successful business before winning an election. Only catch? Almost none of it was true. Santos lied, schemed and embezzled his way into Congress until the world caught on and his career vani...

Can the office also be a party? Would you really want it to be? For WeWork’s CEO and founder Adam Neumann, the answer was an unequivocal, hell yes! Neumann propelled his co-working space empire to incredible heights and a valuation over $45B, all while throwing nonstop ragers, hot boxing his private jet, and arm wrestling with Jared Kushner. But when the rent came due, Neumann couldn’t cook the bo...

When eccentric toy maker Ty Warner created a new line of floppy stuffed animals with cute names and charming poems, he unleashed pure havoc and chaos into the world. At the height of Beanie Mania, people spent their life savings and even assaulted others to collect the rare creatures like Patti the Platypus and Ziggy the Zebra before they “retired”. When the dust settled, fortunes were lost, limbs...

Abby Lee Miller was the force behind the hit reality show "Dance Moms" where she hurled insults - and occasionally chairs - to motivate future stars like JoJo Siwa and Maddie Ziegler. But while Abby was rising to the top of her own pyramid, she was also choreographing a little thing called financial fraud. Find out what happens when you text your accountant that you "need a little money laundering...

Stacy Spikes came to Hollywood with dreams of revolutionizing the industry. His creation, MoviePass, promised to offer low-fee, all-you-can-watch theater subscriptions for movie fans. The only problem? It couldn't make any money. Find out what happens when Stacy sells out to an eccentric investor, why a dog had to issue an apology to customers, and how John Travolta is somehow at the center of it...

Imagine sealing yourself in giant, glass, self-contained ecosystem with your boyfriend and a lady who's learning to play saxophone... for TWO YEARS. In 1991, eight semi-qualified volunteers entered Biosphere 2, and promised that they would live inside the giant science experiment without any help from the outside. However, thanks to chopped off fingers, oxygen-gulping bacteria, rampant cockroaches...

In the sugar-fueled '90s, Pepsi had one goal: win the Cola Wars. But when it launched “Pepsi Stuff", an ambitious promotion that encouraged people to buy Pepsi and redeem points for prizes, they overlooked their own fine print. When they promised a military-grade plane for less than it was worth "as a joke," Pepsi never imagined somebody might try to actually snag it. After an enterprising dude fr...