Adam Ruins Everything


Adam Ruins Everything is an American educational comedy television series starring Adam Conover that debuted on September 29, 2015, with a 12-episode season on truTV. The series aims to debunk misconceptions that pervade U.S. society. On January 7, 2016, it was announced that the show had been picked up for 14 additional episodes to air starting on August 23, 2016. An hour-long election special was later produced.
On December 7, 2016, truTV announced the renewal of Adam Ruins Everything for a 16-episode season, which premiered on July 11, 2017. An additional miniseries of six animated episodes premiered on March 20, 2018. On May 9, 2018, TruTV announced the show had been renewed for 10 more episodes, and would return late 2018. On July 8, 2019, it was announced that eight additional season 3 episodes would air that year, beginning on August 13, 2019.

Format

Adam Ruins Everything is based on a CollegeHumor web series of the same name, and stars comedian Adam Conover. Each episode begins with an ordinary person going about their daily lives before stating a common misconception regarding a certain topic. Adam appears seemingly out of nowhere and introduces himself, leading to the opening titles. Openly breaking the fourth wall, Adam deconstructs three specific misconceptions related to the episode's topic, using his "magical TV host powers" to introduce sketch characters, time travel, and animated segments, much to the other person's annoyance. To back up his claims, Adam refers to peer-reviewed articles, the citations for which appear onscreen, and pulls in experts in the field. At the end of the show's third act, the other characters' frustration will reach the critical point, their new knowledge making everything related to the episode's topic seem pointless, useless and impossible to fix. In the show's fourth act, Adam responds with a "positive takeaway", explaining how the new knowledge that's been gained actually improves the situation and explaining how they can do their part to improve society and their lives.
In 2016, truTV aired "The Adam Ruins Everything Election Special", which took a historical look at the American presidency and election system, and which was filmed before a live audience in Los Angeles, California.
The first season featured segments titled "Ever Wonder Why?" which briefly touched on subjects unrelated to the episode's main topic. The second season replaces these interstitials with extended, out-of-character interviews with the show's experts. In season three, these are replaced with new segments where Emily talks about other subjects related to the main topic.

Cast

These actors appear in featured roles, often as historical figures that help illustrate the origins of the ideas that Adam scrutinizes.
Adam Ruins Everything has received positive reviews from critics. Reviewing the series premiere, The New York Times reviewer Neil Genzlinger wrote, "Adam Conover's new television series isn't the first dedicated to the fine art of debunking, but it's one of the most entertaining." Reviewing the second season, The Wall Street Journal critic John Anderson wrote, "In short, he's irritating. But he owns it. Which makes his quasi-educational comedy series so goofily endearing." Writing in Fast Company, Christine Champagne described Conover as "the lovechild of Debbie Downer and the coolest, most contrarian college professor you ever had."
truTV president Chris Linn stated in a 2018 interview that the show is "a breakout hit" for the network, and that truTV's research has found that viewer "sentiment is overwhelmingly positive, even for people who don't agree with . They appreciate his approach."
Reviews have praised Adam Ruins Everything's ability to encourage critical thinking and change its minds using comedy and facts, even when viewers have strongly-held beliefs to the contrary. Writing in the Pacific Standard, Andy Dehnart said:
Adam Ruins Everything has found use by educators in the classroom. In a paper entitled "Adam Ruins Everything, Except Economics", Pennsylvania State University lecturers Jadrien Wooten and James Tierney wrote that "Adam Ruins Everything touches on many economics topics that are relevant to introductory-level courses" and went on to describe how segments from the show could be used to teach concepts in economics.
Writing in The Verge, Sean O'Kane criticized the episode "Adam Ruins Going Green"'s representation of a report on electric cars by Slate magazine. He wrote: A similar argument against the episode was leveled by Fred Lambert of the pro-EV publication Electrek. Adam Conover and researcher Peter Miller released a response to O'Kane's op-ed, in which they stated:
The episode "Emily Ruins Adam Ruins Everything", functioned as a "corrections" episode, in which Conover and Axford revealed and discussed factual errors the show made over the preceding season. In this episode, Conover stood by the facts presented in the "Going Green" episode but argued that the presentation could have been clearer, stating, "If that many people misread our argument, we should have done a better job explaining it."
Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, a chemist and science journalist working for Germany's public broadcasting, criticized a portion of the episode "Adam Ruins Science" about animal testing for making what she called misleading claims about scientists and misquoting sources.

Episodes

International broadcast

In Canada, the series premiered on January 12, 2017 on Much. The series is also broadcast on SBS Viceland in Australia.
The series premiered on Netflix for the United States on September 30, 2018.