The Sims Spark'd

The Sims Spark'd

The Sims Spark'd logo

The Sims Spark'd is a game show based on The Sims 4, which premiered on July 17, 2020 on TBS and on July 20, 2020 on BuzzFeed Multiplayer. The first season ran for four episodes.

Contestants compete in various challenges, based in Create a Sim, build mode and live mode, with a grand prize of $100,000. There are also in-game challenges for players to participate in during the show's run, with a chance for the winners to be selected as contestants for a potential second season.

Official description

Redefine reality competitions with The Sims™ Spark’d, a new show where the only limit to what contestants can create is their imagination! Don’t miss the episode 1 premiere for United States viewers on TBS on July 17.

For decades, diverse storytellers have been telling millions of stories in The Sims, inspired by their own lives and limitless creativity. Now, the competition is underway as twelve Simmers take on timed creativity challenges to build characters, worlds, and stories in the hopes of impressing the judges—and winning the $100,000 prize.

Season 1

Cast

The host for this season is Rayvon Owen (a singer and former contestant on American Idol), and the judges are Dave Miotke (a.k.a SimGuruNinja, the lead producer of The Sims 4), Kelsey Impicciche (a BuzzFeed producer), and Tayla Parx (a singer, songwriter, and voice actress on The Sims 4).

The teams were decided on in the first episode, with all of the contestants being Sims-players with an online following of some sort. Each team consists of a Stylist, a Builder and a Storyteller.

Team	Role	Contestant	Status
Team Gnome	Stylist	Plumbella	Eliminated in episode 2
	Builder	Simproved
	Storyteller	The English Simmer
Team Cowplant	Stylist	LittleSiha	Runners-up
	Builder	Doctor Ashley
	Storyteller	Steph0sims (later replaced by The English Simmer)
Team Freezer Bunny	Stylist	XUrbanSimsX	Eliminated in episode 1
	Builder	SpringSims
	Storyteller	DeeSims
Team Llama	Stylist	xMiraMira	Winners
	Builder	SimLicy
	Storyteller	DrGluon

Contestant progress

Team	Contestant	1		2		3		4
Team Llama	xMiraMira	LOW	BTM	LOW (Ranked 3rd)	WIN	HIGH (3/3 Votes)	WIN (5/9 Votes)	Winners
	SimLicy					LOW (0/3 Votes)
	DrGluon					HIGH (2/3 Votes)
Team Cowplant	LittleSiha	SAFE	HIGH	WIN (Ranked 1st)	BTM	LOW (0/3 Votes)	SAFE (4/9 Votes)	Runners-up
	Doctor Ashley					HIGH (3/3 Votes)
Team Gnome (Ep 1–2) Team Cowplant (Ep 3–4)	The English Simmer	WIN	WIN	HIGH (Ranked 2nd)	ELIM	LOW (1/3 Votes)
Team Cowplant	Steph0Sims	SAFE	HIGH	WIN (Ranked 1st)	BTM	WITHDREW
Team Gnome	Plumbella	WIN	WIN	HIGH (Ranked 2nd)	ELIM
	Simproved
Team Freezer Bunny	xUrbanSimsx	LOW	ELIM
	SpringSims
	DeeSims

Episode summary

Ep.	Original air date	YouTube air date	Summary
1	July 17, 2020	July 20, 2020	Twelve Sims influencers arrived in the Maxis headquarters' lobby in San Francisco, California. They were met with rousing applause from all the Maxis developers and greeted by host Owen and judges Miotke, Impicciche and Parx. The four teams were decided randomly by taking out color-coded badges from a bag, and they then were given their first Skills Challenge. Skills Challenge - Inspiration: The Sims influencers had to style, build, and create a story featuring three out of twenty items of inspiration chosen via a race from two tables. (Time limit: 90 minutes) Team Items of Inspiration Llama Guitar Fishing Pole Bubbles Gnome Urn Cherry Blossom Tree Voodoo Doll Cowplant Mirror Stereo Bed Freezer Bunny Microphone Camera Books Team Cowplant's Inspiration Story: Steph0Sims came up with the story of a stage mother and failed dancer, Karen Kristy, forcing her rebellious daughter Kaylynn to practice for beauty pageants in their trailer park home, much to her daughter's anger. Kaylynn does not want to compete in beauty pageants and prefers taking up soccer instead. During the live presentation, Steph paused a few times due to suffering from nerves. While the judges said the story execution had room for improvement, they also comforted Steph on her nerves. Team Llama's Inspiration Story: xMiraMira, having grabbed a guitar for her team's story, was worried when her teammates DrGluon and SimLicy returned with a fishing pole and a bubble blower, respectively. Mira was also frustrated when Gluon conceptualized his idea for the story without offering her or Licy any input: Gluon's story involved a poor fisherman, Malai "Fyn" Bass, trying to please his daughter Kaila when she wants to go to her favorite band's concert while struggling to meet the demands of his landlord Patricia Crumplebum for the rent for their beach shack. Fyn himself decides to hold a private concert for his daughter to fulfill her love of music. Mira and Licy were especially worried when Gluon got nervous about the build and did not entirely follow through with the vision he had come up with during the run-through, and his nerves also showed during the live presentation. The judges liked the story's staging but felt the execution could have been better and noted the bubble blower's under-utilization. Mira was also left underwhelmed by the outcome of the presentation. Team Freezer Bunny's Inspiration Story: Despite being bemused by SpringSims only managing to grab a camera instead of an item that their team all agreed on, DeeSims came up with the story of a girl, Natasha "Tash" Finch, who defies her strict parents Clark and Elaine's expectations to become a lawyer and pursues a singing career instead. Due to the lack of time for building, the team decided to concentrate on building four individual interior sets for the storyline: Tash's bedroom, the Finch living room, a local recording studio, and a local music café. However, Dee and xUrbanSimsx were annoyed when Spring repeatedly agonized over his building choices, which did not allow Dee much time to run through her storytelling before the live presentation. The judges enjoyed the story but Miotke was distracted by the four room sets' exteriors' lack of decoration. Team Gnome's Inspiration Story: Inspired by the voodoo dolls she had chosen earlier and following a comment from her fellow team members about them looking like punks, the English Simmer conceptualized the story of an old widow, Lucy Phere, who adopts two punk teenagers, Nancy and Syd, and takes them to live with her in her old Victorian mansion. A bitter woman who wants to create as much drama for others as she has already had in her life, Lucy then uses the voodoo dolls to make the two boys do her bidding and terrorize the town. The judges enjoyed the mansion's build more than the story itself, which they said was unexplored. However, they later said that the use of the voodoo dolls won them over. The other teams were amazed at how detailed Simproved's build was for such a short amount of time. Skills Challenge Winners: Team Gnome Skills Challenge Runners-Up: Team Cowplant Skills Challenge Bottom Two: Team Llama & Team Freezer Bunny Elimination Challenge - Family: Each team had to create a new family of 4 Sims with their residence in the Willow Creek neighborhood. The team had to create a short video presentation showing the back story of the Sims family. As an extra incentive, the winning team would have their created family featured in the game. (Time limit: 5 hours) Challenge Twist: The teams had to create a rival family of Sims from a different neighborhood. As a result of winning the Skills Challenge, Team Gnome had the advantage of selecting the neighborhood of their choice and assigning neighborhoods to other teams. They chose San Myshuno for themselves, while Team Freezer Bunny received Brindleton Bay, Team Cowplant received Del Sol Valley, and Team Llama received Windenburg; based on the neighborhoods that Team Gnome felt the other teams would work best with. Team Cowplant's Family Story: The team came up with the idea to do a parody of the hit TV series Gossip Girl: an anonymous online blogger named DramaLlama, voiced by Doctor Ashley, reports gossip on the residents in Willow Creek, starting with the overshadowed Tea family: Camille and Chai with their daughter Ginger and nanny Winter; then moving onto Travis Scott and Summer Holiday embarking on a secret affair, Cassandra Goth partying with Ginger, and visiting Simstagram star Victoria Star from Del Sol Valley editing her photos to feature larger lips and a bustier body. Although everyone is out to get each other, secretly, they all love each other, and DramaLlama chooses to keep these stories a secret. The story ends with DramaLlama signing off, with the camera panning back to reveal Chai Tea writing the blog as DramaLlama. The judges applauded the Gossip Girl parody, but felt that the storytelling was disjointed at times and focused more on the other families of Willow Creek rather than the two main families themselves. Team Llama's Family Story: DrGluon concieved a backstory for Magnolia Blossom Park, with a grandmother, Momma Magnolia, founding the park as a place where families can converge to learn about gardening and keep their roots grounded while facing opposition from the Sheppard family from Windenburg, who intend to build a factory over the space. After Mrs. Magnolia founds the park with the mayor's approval, her daughters Sarah and Stacey split over differing views on living their own lives; Stacey leaves to travel the world while Sarah stays in Willow Creek to continue her mother's gardening legacy. She also starts a family of her own after marrying the Sheppard family's son, which merges the two families and dissolves their differences. However, Gluon and xMiraMira still disagreed on the ending: Mira wanted the characters to get married, while Gluon preferred Stacey ultimately returning to Willow Creek after her travels, remembering to "keep her roots grounded". Flaws in the voiceover process also showed: Gluon voiced all the male and female characters whereas SimLicy provided the story's narration. The judges felt that the storyline with Willow Creek's Magnolia Park did not show any progress and that there was no strong rival, and that the team would need to provide a more cohesive story with better drama and editing going forward. Mira was left frustrated at the inconsistency of her team's story. Team Gnome's Family Story: The team came up with the idea of a family who splits apart after the father has no time for his wife or their daughter, who run away and are taken in by an old couple; with the overarching theme being that anyone can choose their own family. Once the challenge twist was delivered, the team expanded on their concept: the reason why the Promise family from San Myshuno is split apart is because the father, already working to support his wife and daughter, is pressured by his own father to take on the family business. The mother and the daughter, Aliya, run away from San Myshuno and are taken in by an elderly couple, Mary and Blossom Greenburg, who help them build new lives in Willow Creek and teach them follow their passions, with Mary mentoring Aliya to become a devoted gardener. After some time, the father tracks down his family and is impressed with Aliya's crops and dedication, ultimately helping her set up a successful plant stall with his business knowledge. The story ends with Aliya and her parents sitting down for dinner together with the Greenburgs as a family; their rifts now healed. The judges applauded the storyline's overall inspiration and direction but felt the story could be further explored. Team Freezer Bunny's Family Story: DeeSims came up with an idea of a couple, Francesca and Romero Santiago from Brindleton Bay, who move into a new home to raise their unborn twins; Romero dies suddenly, but the family bond is so strong that Romero's ghost watches over Francesca and the twins in the family home. Unfortunately, the team struggled to cope with the intense pressure. A loss of many of the voiceover files near the end of the editing process resulted in subtitles being added and much of the narrative turned into a silent movie with no dialogue, resulting in a somewhat unfinished video. However, the judges praised them for providing an emotional albeit incomplete narrative, particularly Miotke, who was especially moved after having coped with a recent death in his family. xUrbanSimsx was embarrassed and upset that her team was unable to finish their video on time. Elimination Challenge Winners: Team Gnome Elimination Challenge Runners-Up: Team Cowplant Bottom Two: Team Llama & Team Freezer Bunny Eliminated: Team Freezer Bunny As a result of winning the Elimination Challenge, Team Gnome's family, the Greenburgs, were added to The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle expansion pack as part of the Evergreen Harbor neighborhood.
2	July 24, 2020	July 27, 2020	Skills Challenge - Parenthood: The Sims influencers had to create 3 Sims growing up in toddler, child, and teen life stages with unique rooms. (Time limit: 2 hours) Team Gnome's Parenthood Story: Plumbella conceptualized a period piece in 1970s and 1980s North-East England during the miners' strike, based on the politics she had read about and her own father's experiences with the mining politics. The team created a character, John McNally, who shows an interest in mining and whose father Alan takes him as a child to the mines to show him the town's mining ways. As a teen, John begins to rally the troops to protest against the stripping of the miners' rights. The judges were impressed with the build and sympathized with Plumbella's story; however, they felt that the story still had holes to be explored. Team Llama's Parenthood Story: After barely surviving the last two challenges, the team struggled to find their footing in this challenge. xMiraMira said that the challenges were more geared towards YouTubers; streamers like DrGluon are given free rein to improvise and tell their stories how they want to in real-time during live streaming, whereas YouTubers have to structure and edit their stories within a certain time-frame. Gluon came up with a story about a young orphan named Amethyst Simmons, who is tormented by her sadistic and abusive headmaster Marleenie the Meanie. As a child, she stumbles into a spellcaster's potion shop and quickly learns to become a spellcaster herself. She then grows up as an accomplished spellcaster teenager who helps other impoverished and abused children with her magic after killing Marleenie off-screen. During the challenge, Gluon and Mira did not see eye-to-eye on how Amethyst stumbles into the potion shop: Mira suggested that Amethyst gets adopted by a spell-caster while Gluon preferred to have Amethyst run away from the orphanage, with the potion shop once owned by her late spellcaster grandfather, and during the last 5 minutes the team struggled to find time to test out the storytelling. The judges felt that Amethyst did not have much depth or a detailed backstory and Marleenie was under-utilized overall. Team Cowplant's Parenthood Story: Determined to have their team finally win a challenge, Steph0Sims came up with the story of a boy who wears make-up and struggles with his own gender identity, with his supportive parents reassuring him of his own choices against other people's opinions; Steph was particularly inspired by experiences that some of her friends went through with gender identity crisis. In their story, Mac Upton is raised by his father as a single parent after his mother's death. As a toddler, his university dean father takes him to his workplace at a university, where Mac develops a love for dolls and tea parties, supported by his father. As a child, Mac goes to school, which he dislikes after having visited the university as a toddler, and his female best friend, jealous of his fashion choices, mocks his outfit, enraging him further. Finally, as a teen prodigy, Mac is enrolled in university, where he experiments with make-up and forges a more stable social life with friends who support him as who he is. The judges applauded the team for showcasing a strong narrative about a relatable family, though Impicciche asked for clarification on the female friend's conflict with Mac. Skills Challenge Winners: Team Cowplant Skills Challenge Runners-Up: Team Gnome Skills Challenge Third Place: Team Llama Elimination Challenge - Supernatural: Each team had to create a short video inspired by science-fiction or fantasy. (Time limit: 6 hours, split across 2 days) Based on the ranks in the Skills Challenge, each team had to choose three content packs from which they had to create their stories with. Team Content packs Cowplant Island Living Seasons Discover University Gnome Get to Work StrangerVille Dine Out Llama Vampires Get Famous Jungle Adventure Challenge Twist: The teams had to incorporate their Parenthood Sims character from the last skills challenge into their supernatural stories. Team Llama's Supernatural Story: Aware of their lack of success in the competition so far, the team began to address their lack of cohesive teamwork at once. As Team Gnome had taken their original final pack, Dine Out, which ruled out DrGluon's original idea of a celebrity restaurant run by vampires with plasma as the secret recipe, xMiraMira came up with a more racy idea: an aging actress and sex icon in Del Sol Valley, Nancy "Nourish Nourish" James, struggles with her fading beauty, so she decides to go on a trip to recover her lost youth. During the trip, a vampire bites her, which restores her skin to her youthful form. Gluon was reluctant to pursue this idea but allowed Mira to take charge of the storyline in hopes of allowing their team a win to stay in the competition. However, he was also worried about how the judges would critique the story due to it being risqué. Upon learning of the challenge twist, the team were confused about bringing back Amethyst as her spellcaster form did not fit in with the packs they chose. However, they decided to retcon Amethyst as a 200-year-old vampiress being living in Selvadorada who restores Nancy's lost youth by transforming her into a vampire, tapping into a "dark side" herself after killing Marleenie the Meanie. The voiceover process improved significantly over this challenge: rather than having Gluon voice all the characters as in the first elimination challenge, Mira provided Nancy's voice and narrated the story. In an interview with Digital Trends, the team also spoke on using the challenge to further explore their individual skills in scenes not aired in the episode: Simlicy assisted Mira with the creation of the characters, while Gluon provided Licy with building input. The judges applauded the team for producing a strong narrative and expanding vastly on Amethyst's character. Team Cowplant's Supernatural Story: Steph0Sims came up with a narrative of a trio of attractive mermaids from the island of Sulani inviting frat boys studying at the Foxbury Institute to a private party, as a ruse to hypnotize the boys and take them to their island. Coincidentally, the challenge twist allowed them to incorporate their university character Mac, as they had chosen Discover University as one of their three packs, and he was included as a party guest in the storyline. However, upon watching their final video live with the judges, it became apparent to both the team and the judges that the way the video was edited did not cohesively tell their story the way they originally intended, which led to a very confusing narrative. Team Gnome's Supernatural Story: Plumbella came up with the idea of Owen kidnapping the judges and ordering them to work as slaves at his alien restaurant. The challenge twist required them to utilize their miner character John, so they used his child form as a character who rescues the judges from the restaurant by using an alien disguise and subsequently takes over Owen's role as host. While the judges found their Sim likenesses and Simproved's vocal sound effects funny, they felt that the story elements were lacking and questioned their lack of usage of the three packs given, particularly StrangerVille. In an interview released shortly after the episode aired, Miotke called the bottom two decision a close call, though stated that Team Gnome made more transgressions than Team Cowplant in terms of pack and challenge requirements and story elements. Elimination Challenge Winners: Team Llama Bottom Two: Team Cowplant & Team Gnome Eliminated: Team Gnome While Team Llama celebrated their first challenge win and xMiraMira was happy with her team's newfound cohesive teamwork and being allowed to showcase her creativity in the challenge, Steph0Sims was upset about Team Gnome's departure; particularly her friends Plumbella and the English Simmer, after Team Cowplant narrowly survived being in the bottom two. Steph began to doubt her storytelling ability for her own team and was unsure how to continue in the competition without Team Gnome.
3	July 31, 2020	August 3, 2020	Skills Challenge: For the first time this season, each team's individual members would individually compete against the other team's respective skill players in 45-minute challenges. The winning team would gain the advantage of an extra 15 minutes in the final challenge. Stylist Challenge - Gender Not Required: For this challenge, xMiraMira of Team Llama and LittleSiha of Team Cowplant had to create six Sim models with unique sizes, shapes, genders, and ethnicity, and a cohesive and unique gender-fluid fashion collection for the Sims to model in a fashion showcase. (Time limit: 45 minutes) xMiraMira created her fashion line, the Chill Collection, showcasing adults wearing predominantly blue clothing with heavy diversity in size and ethnicity; however, Miotke criticized the line for the lack of diversity in age. LittleSiha named her own fashion line Suzanne after her grandmother, showcasing a modern twist on strong patterns and bright colors, with one main focal point per outfit. Siha's fashion line even showcased a retired elder, contributing slightly to diversity in age; however, it was criticized by the judges on the lack of diversity in body types. Stylist Challenge Winner: xMiraMira of Team Llama (Unanimous Vote: 3–0) Builder Challenge - Unconventional Build: For this challenge, SimLicy of Team Llama and Doctor Ashley of Team Cowplant had to create a mode of transportation with unconventional materials. (Time limit: 45 minutes) Doctor Ashley concentrated on building an unconventional form of transport: a crash-landed technologically-advanced time machine. At the same time, SimLicy focused on building a more conventional transport form built unconventionally: a school bus converted into a small home. The judges were concerned about Licy focusing heavily on her design's interior rather than the exterior; until Parx came into the workspace to intervene nearly 30 minutes into the challenge, subtly encouraging Licy to add more detail to the exterior of the bus. However, the judges felt that Licy's exterior design still needed improvement and were more impressed with Ashley's more futuristic build. Builder Challenge Winner: Doctor Ashley of Team Cowplant (Unanimous Vote: 3–0) In between the Builder and Storyteller Challenges, Steph0Sims of Team Cowplant withdrew from the competition, unable to handle the pressure of the challenge for her team and not wanting to continue without her friends in Team Gnome who were eliminated in the previous episode. As a result, the producers reinstated the English Simmer from Team Gnome into the competition to join Team Cowplant for the Storyteller Challenge. Storyteller Challenge - Sell That Fixer-Upper: For this challenge, DrGluon of Team Llama and the English Simmer of Team Cowplant had to do storytelling live to the judges and their teammates with zero prep time, based on a scenario created and controlled by Miotke. Each storyteller had to act as a real estate agent and convince the judges to buy a house with many messes, broken objects and bizarre disasters. DrGluon's comedic form of storytelling made the judges laugh, and they found themselves more curious about the various rooms of the house, while the English Simmer took on a more realistic approach to selling her house; however, she did stumble at certain points of the challenge, having had much less experience with live streaming storytelling than Gluon. Although Miotke praised how seamless Gluon was in his storytelling to which Gluon admitted to building similar houses; he later came to criticize Gluon's humor and voted in favor of the English Simmer's realistic approach. However, Parx voted in favor of Gluon based on his humor, leaving Impicciche to nervously make the casting vote. Storyteller Challenge Winner: DrGluon of Team Llama (Majority Vote: 2–1) Skills Challenge Winners: Team Llama (2 of 3 challenges; 5 of 9 votes) Skills Challenge Runners-Up: Team Cowplant (1 of 3 challenges; 4 of 9 votes)
4	August 7, 2020	August 10, 2020	Final Challenge - Play With Life: For the final challenge, Team Llama and Team Cowplant each had to find a common thread with each other among the reasons why they play The Sims, and use that thread to create 3 Sims, a build and a video narrative. Each team had 15 minutes of prep time to discuss why they play the game and then formulate a storyline for their video before producing their final product. (Time limit: 6 hours) As a result of winning the Skills Challenge, Team Llama were given an additional 15 minutes ahead of Team Cowplant to produce their final video. Team Llama's Play With Life Story: DrGluon, xMiraMira, and SimLicy discussed how they had each been bullied in school during their childhoods for their love of video games, so they decided to form a narrative on using the game to cope with bullying. Mira wanted to do a story centering on the three of them overcoming adversaries globally; however, Gluon insisted on making Mira the face and narrator of the story. He also said during the reunion podcast that he based parts of the story on his daughter's experiences with getting bullied for her love of gaming as he wanted to encourage her gaming passions. The story centers on a young Mira growing up in New York, ridiculed by a school classmate, Clem, for her creativity and interest in video games. At Christmas, Mira receives a computer from her supportive mother and discovers The Sims. As she grows up, she meets friends who encourage her to share her love for and experiences with The Sims online. For the challenge, Mira provided the voice of her younger self and her supportive female friend and even sang a Simlish song to showcase her love for The Sims, which Parx noticed as she herself had also recorded a Simlish song for the game. Team Cowplant's Play With Life Story: Original team members Doctor Ashley and LittleSiha and new member the English Simmer discussed how they use the game to showcase their creativity outside of the pressure from their professional and academic lives, and upon comparing their different life stories, all three came up with a storyline of a composite Sim with elements from each of their personalities, growing up with an internal battle of two conflicting voices in her head: one telling her to be creative, and the other urging her to suppress her creativity. Each member narrated a different part of the story based on her own life: Siha narrated on the Sim's childhood, Ashley narrated on the Sim's unhappiness at her office job up until arriving at the creative voice's concert during a gay pride parade, and the English Simmer narrated on the Sim changing from her work outfit to her more expressive clothes, letting the negative voice fade away and showcasing her own creativity as an artist at an art showcase during the parade, inspired by the English Simmer's own real-life coming out while playing The Sims. The judges were equally deeply moved by both teams' stories, which caused them to agonize over their decision. Since it was a split decision because they could not find anything to fault either team, they had to choose a winner based on the story that moved them the most. Winners: Team Llama Runners-Up: Team Cowplant

In-game challenges

Each challenge consists of three categories for players to enter, Stylist, Builder and Storyteller. Players can enter any category as many times as they like.

• In the Stylist category, players must create a household and upload it to the Gallery.
• In the Builder category, players must create a lot and likewise upload it to the Gallery.
• In the Storyteller category, players must create a short video (at a maximum of three minutes long) and upload it to YouTube.

Themes

Image	Name	Description	Submission dates	Voting deadline
	Destination Wedding	Staying home and safe shouldn't stop you from having your dream Destination Wedding. Explore the endless possibilities to create and share your perfect day. Come live out your dream.	July 17, 2020 – August 2, 2020	August 9, 2020
	Golden Age	All that glitters is gold. That's how the saying goes, right? Explore the endless possibilities of living life to the fullest.	September 2, 2020 – September 21, 2020	September 25, 2020
	Creature Creation	Unleash a whole new world full of mystery, mischief, and maybe a little mayhem. Let's make some magic.	October 16, 2020 – November 2, 2020	November 6, 2020
	Holiday Magic	Portray what happens when Sims living in a magical snow globe are taken for a swirl. Share your Holiday Magic story!	November 23, 2020 – December 11, 2020	December 14, 2020