About

What Would You Do? is an American hidden camera television series hosted by John Quiñones and created by Chris Whipple. The series which first aired in 2008 on ABC, features actors creating conflict in public with the intention of focusing on bystanders reactions an if they intervene.

History

On February 26th, 2008, What Would You Do?'s first episode aired on ABC. The show has aired for 14 seasons with reruns airing on OWN and A&E.^[1][2] On February 18th, 2015, the show joined YouTube and has gained over 4.5 million subscribers in four years. On May 29th, What Would You Do? uploaded their first video "Season 10 Teaser" which gained over 30,600 views in four years (shown below, left). On June 25th, 2019, the YouTube^[3] channel uploaded their most popular video "Teacher Hits On Student | What Would You Do? | WWYD" (show below, right). The video accumulated over 45.8 million views in three years.

Reception

What Would You Do? has consistently over garnered over four million viewers each season with the highest views being over eight million in its first season.^[4]

Impact

Due to the show's large viewership, What Would You Do? has become a topic of conversation on Twitter. On January 28th, 2016, Twitter user @paigecatsmith^[5] tweeted, "I only do good deeds when I feel there's a chance John Quiñones might be around to see" (shown below, left). On August 31st, 2019, Twitter user @Adoomies1^[6] gained over 1,600 likes in four months for tweeting "My biggest fear is minding my business at a restaurant and seeing something crazy happen then John quinones asking me why I didn’t help" (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Excuse Me Ma'am I'm John Quiñones

On November 30th, TikTok user @Sourpunch uploaded a sound clip from the show in which the host, John Quiñones introduces himself to a bystander, as well as the song "I Can't Handle Change" by Roar (shown below, left). The video gained over 493,000 likes in a month. On December 1st, 2019, TikTok user @grabytrain used that sound clip in a video acting out a scenario in which he denies a homeless person food. The video garnered over 603,700 likes in four days (shown below, center). On December 2nd more TikTok users implemented the sound clip in similar videos. TikTok user @bandhuntahana's version received over 600,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).