I think you're looking for Core Wars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~anton/cw/corewar-faq.html

Wouldn't that be like giving someone a logic-puzzle and have people ... watch them do it?

Doesn't seem like a competitive spectator thing at all, and I'm a coder myself.

I'd say the same thing, if I were the owner of a company that does stuff with competetive programming.

No way this will be as popular as any normal game you can watch on Twitch.

Think about Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen. Who would really want to see people cook something that they won't be able to taste? Viewers need to rely on the judges' opinions about the food and that's it. And yet a lot of people watch those shows, not only for the food, but for the 'process' involved in cooking. It's really the drama and emotions involved in the episodes that people crave and keep those shows alive.

How about America's Next Top Model? Or The Apprentice? Most viewers of these shows are neither models nor managers. Perhaps when coding has become as ubiquitous as cooking, business, or fashion (which will happen most likely), coding as a spectator sport will make more sense.

A little different but wasnt there a kickstarter a while afo for a game based around coding but against ai? Ill have to try and find out what happened to that!

There's already the ICPC with prizes and everything, and as fun as it can be for the participants, it is definitely not a spectator sport.

You can watch the world finals from May at http://icpclive.com if you want, but let's face it, you don't.

It's quite fun actually. First challenges are simple bug correction tasks. I hope next challenges will be more "creative".