Reality television has always been controversial. But one lesser-known show may take the cake: O.J. Simpson’s 2006 hidden-camera prank show, Juiced. The hour-long special was inspired by the hit MTV prank show Punk’d, led by Ashton Kutcher, with Simpson in the role of lead jokester. Ultimately, the project was shelved amid concerns from production and quietly released to DVD.
A new four-part ID docuseries, OJ Unseen: Exploitation of Evil, promises viewers “never-before seen footage” and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Juiced. The documentary will also feature interviews with crew members involved in the ill-fated show’s creation.
Simpson, who died in April 2024, was a former professional football player nicknamed “The Juice.” He was acquitted in October 1995 for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, following an 8-month trial. However, in February 1997, he was found liable in a civil trial for their deaths and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families. More than a decade after his acquittal, in an era when reality TV was focused on controversial public figures, Simpson filmed Juiced, hoping for redemption.
Here’s everything to know about Juiced and why it never aired.
What Inspired Juiced?
According to the show’s executive producer, Richard Mahr, the idea came at the height of reality TV’s boom.
“It was never meant to be a comeback vehicle for O.J. or try to turn him into a mainstream star again,” Mahr shared on This American Life in 2024. “We were tasked with creating a reality show that cut through the clutter, that everybody would be talking about, really during an era when there was a reality TV boom, and there was a lot of one upsmanship in the marketplace … He [Simpson] said, look, this wasn’t designed to win Emmys. It’s supposed to be a nonstop barrage of craziness.”
The show was filmed over a two-week period in Las Vegas, and yes, Simpson also yelled a tagline following his pranks. Directly inspired by Kutcher’s “You’ve been Punk’d!,” Simpson made his version: “You’ve been Juiced!” (An ode to his infamous nickname.)
Another reason for the show was to get Simpson to confess to murdering Brown Simpson and Goldman, according to Entertainment Weekly. In a preview clip of Juiced, Simpson was described as a “chatty Cathy” when he was drinking.
He is captured on camera saying, “We shouldn’t be talking about this on camera. You motherf---ers, be prepared. I know exactly who did it.”
Why Didn’t Juiced Air on Cable?
Unlike long-running Punk’d, Simpson’s Juiced did not have multiple episodes (or seasons). It was filmed as an hour-long special and quietly released as a one-time pay-per-view. It was then repurposed as a DVD release.
The cover on the DVD’s description reads: “Witness O.J. Simpson performing hilarious practical jokes and shocking hidden camera stunts on unsuspecting real-life people all across America. No one is safe, because The Juice is loose again.”
However, Simpson and the crew didn’t find success—and this may have been on purpose. “There was a mole on the crew who leaked the project to the press,” OJ Unseen director Rebecca Halpern told US Weekly in September. “The reason they leaked it was because they felt that it was so inappropriate and irredeemable that it needed to be stopped.”
Ratings organization Nielsen reported Juiced sold fewer than 100 copies on DVD, according to This American Life.
What Pranks Happened on Juiced?
Simpson donned costumes, prosthetics, and also played himself in different skits on the show. According to Halpern, the premise was for Simpson to “shock innocent victims in pranks inspired by [his] own true crime case.”
One of the most controversial stunts included a skit in which Simpson visits a used car lot, where he attempts to sell a white Ford Bronco. This was the same model he drove during the infamous Bronco chase, where Simpson was famously chased in a slow-speed pursuit by police on June 17, 1994, after failing to turn himself in after being charged for the murders of Brown Simpson and Goldman.
In the skit, Simpson told the used-car dealer, “It helped me get away.”
Actor Harmon Leon was hired to play Simpson’s “funny little sidekick” on the show, and shared more details about Simpson’s roles. He landed the job via a Craigslist ad, and was told by a producer on the show, “You know, Harmon, we really can’t mention … the murders,” he told VICE in 2014.
Leon described other skits Simpson took part in, including the first prank they worked on together, where Simpson dressed like a “gangsta rapper” as singers and dancers auditioned blindly for his fake music video.
Other skits saw Simpson dressed as a number of other characters, including a janitor, a white elderly man leading a Bingo game, an orange-selling vagabond, and even Elvis Presley.
What Was Simpson Like on the Set of Juiced?
Reportedly, Simpson was difficult to work with on set. An unnamed producer said on just the second day of production, “OJ just doesn’t give a sh-t. OJ shows up late, OJ doesn’t want to wear wardrobe, OJ refuses to do things. What the hell is the matter with OJ?!” Leon told VICE.
Simpson’s antics delayed filming and work for the crew of 20 people. He reportedly said, “People are always try to catch me doing something crazy on camera.”
Eventually, Simpson settled in. Leon noted Simpson repeatedly said, “The lights are on me. I’m feeling like a star. I’m feeling like a star!”
The cinematographer of Juiced, Luc Nicknair, claimed the crew felt divided about who Simpson was and working with him. “Some people thought, look, this man was a great athlete and a big star. And he was acquitted. And that’s that, and that’s how I see this,” he shared on This American Life. “And others who thought, yeah, he was acquitted, but I still have other thoughts about what may have happened.”
Who Was Juiced Producer Rick Mahr?
Rick Mahr was an experienced Hollywood producer. At the time, Mahr was executive producer of Xtreme DVD. He had previously been involved in many straight-to-DVD format projects, including those featuring real-life footage from street fights and bachelor parties.
“Basically O.J. Simpson has decided to do this because he wants to do it, and he wanted to have fun with it,” Mahr told the Associated Press.
However, Mahr later told This American Life he “buried the project on purpose.”
He added, “We had the blinders on to make one crazy reality TV show ... After we did it, there was a part of me that said, what the hell did we just do? ... We pulled it from circulation. And it’s been gathering dust until now.”
Did Juiced Get Any Backlash?
During initial filming, the show received backlash from Goldman’s family. At the time, Inside Edition quoted Fred Goldman, Ron’s father, calling the show “morally reprehensible.”
Brown Simpson’s family attorney, Gloria Allred, told the Associated Press at the time that Simpson should not receive any proceeds himself. Instead, his earnings should go to “satisfy the multimillion-dollar judgment made against him in the civil case,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
Whether Simpson was paid for his role in Juiced has never been confirmed. However, defense attorney Yale Galanter, who represented Simpson, told NBC News in 2006, “O.J. was being compensated for his time, his travel, and his expenses.”
But Galanter also noted in the interview, “We have no contractual relationship with the people at Xtreme Video who are distributing this. We don’t know them. They’ve never contacted us. There are no financial arrangements.”
As for the response from people who were filmed on the show with Simpson, Leon shared on This American Life that they seemed starstruck. He said, “I thought, oh, man, there’s going to be like just outraged people, or people freaking out. And that was actually the most mind numbing part about the two-week production, was that people just were actually thrilled when they find out they’d been ‘juiced’ by O.J.”
At least one participant in Juiced, dancer Melissa Santos who was under the impression she was auditioning for a music video, was annoyed by the interaction, which caused her to miss a day of work. According to the Wall Street Journal, she was mixture of shocked and disgusted when it was unveiled Simpson was pulling a prank.
How to Watch OJ Unseen: Exploitation of Evil
Directed by Rebecca Halpern, the four-part docuseries will showcase the two-week production of the making of Juiced. Viewers will get an inside look at the project through the lens of the crew and creator.
“Viewers are going to watch this and see a different side of O.J. than they've ever seen before, thanks to the 100 hours of behind-the-scenes footage that we have,” Halpern told Us Weekly. “And when you see him in the context of some of these sketches, it’s really remarkable that any decent, normal, nice, kind human being would ever put themselves in that kind of a circumstance after having been accused of the things he was accused of.”
OJ Unseen: Exploitation of Evil premieres in a two-night special on ID (Investigation Discovery) September 7 and 8 at 9 p.m. ET. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max.
E.J. Bradley is a writer who covers health, fitness and culture. She is based in New York and is a mom, runner and tea enthusiast.
