For a number of years in the recent past, a million-dollar cash reward was available to anyone who could demonstrate the truth of their pseudo-scientific claims based on a fair protocol mutually agreed between the testee and the contest judges. The James Randi Educational Foundation eventually stopped offering this because nobody ever won (and not for want of trying) and keeping the money on hand on the off-chance was starting to become a nuisance.
The JREF million-dollar challenge did go on for a while but IIRC was never headline news (the fact that no one was successful probably contributed to that). And of course, the number of paranormal claimants who wanted to see their claims put to the test in front of a scientific panel was probably considerably less than the number of paranormal claimants who saw no benefit in this at all. (Certainly none of the big-name “psychics” ever applied to participate.) The number of paranormal claimants who want to see their claims tested in front of a scientific panel on prime-time TV is probably still way smaller than that of JREF million-dollar challenge volunteers, so enlisting enough of them to keep such a show going may be something of a challenge (especially if nobody ever does seem to win, either).
I think the enormity of the effort that would be needed to pull off the deception of “an unflat Earth” is paradoxically part of the appeal. Since SO many people are invested in hiding the flatness, that shows you how much the flatties are up against, and they get to play plucky underdogs fighting a conspiracy that goes to the very top.
I actually think the “Race Across The World” format is better. I’d love to see some families or pairs of flat earthers wending their way among reality as they seek the Wall of Ice.
That said, $50,000 is a reasonable sum to devise and perform an experiment to disprove the globe hypothesis.
Something, something, something - giant ice wall patrolled by ruthless killers under the control of - depending on the flavour of whackery - the Royal Navy, NASA, UN or the Women’s Institute [1].
