It looks like the season one contestants on CBS’s Raid the Cage had to travel all the way to Mexico City to film for the show.
CBS’s new high-stakes game show, Raid the Cage, challenges contestants to “Get In. Get Out.” and “Get Rich” by answering trivia questions for the chance to grab as many high-value prizes as possible before the timer runs out.
The Raid the Cage filming location
However, as exciting as it must be for the contestants to compete on this show, it seems as though the Raid the Cage challenge is made all the more difficult by the fact that contestants have to travel to Mexico to film the episodes.
The casting call for season one of this witty, time-sensitive new game show reveals that it was actually filmed in Mexico City just like the Mexican version of the show.
Raid the Cage has been all over the world
While the CBS version of Raid the Cage is a fairly new addition to the television lineup, the show has actually been in the works for a long time.
In fact, the show’s entire premise is actually based on an Israeli television show, called Kluv Hazahav (“Golden Cage” in English), which premiered back in 2013 and has been broadcast in international markets all over the world.
The American version of the show has had quite an interesting journey, which can be summarized as follows:
| Date | Description |
| Spring, 2016 | NBC orders a pilot for the show, which at this stage was called “Perfect Escape”, and featured Sarah Michelle Gellar and Leslie Mann as hosts. Unfortunately, the pilot was never picked up. |
| June, 2023 | CBS takes a chance on a remake of the series, produced by Sony Pictures Television. |
| August, 2023 | CBS announces that the new version of the show would premiere in August. |
| October, 2023 | The new Raid the Cage, featuring Damon Wayans Jr. and Jeannie Mai as hosts, premieres on CBS for the first time. |
How long does it take to film a Raid the Cage episode?
The website for new Raid the Cage applications not only reveals that prospective contestants had to travel all the way to Mexico City, Mexico, for the filming of season one, but also that these hopeful contestants needed to be able to set aside four whole days (including travel) in their schedules to film their Raid the Cage episodes.
Moreover, Kevin Rayo and Billy Swenson, two contestants who were actually chosen to film for the first season of the show – revealed that filming for Raid the Cage is exactly as intense as you think it is.
According to Rayo and Swenson’s recollection of their Raid the Cage experience, they had been filming for around twelve hours by the time that they reached the final round of their episode.
Fortunately, Rayo and Swenson could rely on Raid the Cage’s enthusiastic audience and the draw of those incredible prizes, to energize them at the end of these long days on set.
What is it like filming for Raid the Cage?
Although Raid the Cage is only in its first season on the air, the series has already blown audiences away with its action-packed excitement. And it seems like things at Raid the Cage are just as exciting behind the scenes.
Jeannie Mai, who hosts the show alongside Damon Wayans Jr., recently revealed via a video posted on her ‘Hello Hunnay with Jeannie Mai’ YouTube channel, what a day on the set of Raid the Cage is really like.
According to Mai, working on Raid the Cage is “exhilarating” and often features special surprises.
This includes NFL superstar, Ephraim Salaam, completely shattering one of the cage’s glass doors during a taping, or even the live band that performed on set for season one’s finale.
Everything we know about Raid the Cage season two
The final episode of Raid the Cage’s first season premiered just a few days ago on January 17, 2024.
And while CBS has not yet announced any official updates about whether the series is likely to be renewed for another season – Raid the Cage has certainly made quite the splash.
The first season of Raid the Cage drew in an average of over 2.3 million viewers per episode and scored a 0.26 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic.
And while this does not rival the viewership of the CBS fan-favorite The Price Is Right at Night (which scored over 4 million viewers on average), it places Raid the Cage securely in CBS’s top four most popular unscripted shows for the 2023/2024 season.
It also indicates that there is a good chance that the series will be renewed for another season very soon.
