News / TV

ABC orders reboot of “The Gong Show”

Every TV game show that once was old, now is new again at ABC.

The broadcast network today announced it’d ordered 10 episodes of a new edition for The Gong Show, which last aired in syndication in 1989 (with a Comedy Central version in 2008). Over the past year, ABC has found success in primetime rebooting Match Game, The $100,000 Pyramid and Celebrity Family Feud.

The 2017 version of The Gong Show will be spearheaded by Will Arnett and Sony Pictures TV. No host has been named yet.

“The comedy culture we are living in has finally caught up to The Gong Show, so the timing is perfect,” said Holly Jacobs, EVP, reality and syndication programming for Sony Pictures Television. “We’ve found just the right partners to bring back this iconic original.”

For anyone too young to remember, The Gong Show was all of the bad auditions from American Idol and America’s Got Talent, with a couple of winners thrown into the mix, and celebrity judges standing up to hit the gong to put a halt to the supremely worst auditioners.

The Gong Show will be produced by Electric Avenue Productions, Den of Thieves in association with Sony Pictures Television and Principato Young Entertainment. Arnett executive produces with Evan Prager, Jesse Ignjatovic and Peter Principato. Jared Morell, Jordan Barrow and Marc Forman will co-executive produce.

The original edition, produced and later hosted by Chuck Barris, debuted in daytime on NBC in 1976 and ran through 1978, with syndicated episodes through 1980, then again in the late 1980s. A GSN edition appeared in the late 1990s, and Comedy Central also tried a season hosted by Dave Attell in 2008.

There’s also an official Off-Broadway version of The Gong Show, hosted by Ray Ellin with Chuck Nice, Mike Fine, The Radiochick, Wali Collins, Joe Devito & The Gong Show 10 band.

Here are some highlights from the old 1970s shows.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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