‘The Chair’ Finds a Comfy Niche

These are not easy times for America’s game-show contestants, those legions of cockeyed optimists who for decades now have been searching for shortcuts to Easy Street.

Whereas once a bubbly personality and a knack for genteel parlor games were all you needed to compete, now a new reality has set in. In today’s game shows, you might be asked to name the “Friends” coffee shop, but then again, you might be asked to eat a handful of worms.

“The Chair” (Tuesdays at 8 p.m., ABC), hosted by tennis legend (and legendary hothead) John McEnroe, asks mainly if you can keep your cool in the heat of competition. The show combines “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” with “Fear Factor” and even a bit of “ER.”

Contestants are given a pre-show screening to determine their resting heart rate, which is used to establish a baseline. Once the cameras roll, a player takes the hot seat with heart monitor attached and must answer trivia questions while keeping those heartbeats under the baseline. The money for each subsequent question goes up as the baseline goes down.

McEnroe serves up beat-boosting insults and better-hurry-up admonitions, but there are far more potent “distractions” in store. Explosions and shooting flames test the resolve of the most steadfast contestant, but then come the money shots: live animals (hog-tied for safety) are lowered from the ceiling and left to hover just a whisker away from contestants.

A rival Fox show, “The Chamber,” sued (and was countersued by) “The Chair” in a dust-up over common elements, but the former show was pulled off the air last month after just three airings because of low ratings.

“The Chair,” meanwhile, seems to have found an audience, particularly among the coveted 18-to-34 age bracket.

What would Allen Ludden say?