Dust off your mallets, because The Gong Show is coming back to network TV. Deadline reports that ABC’s picked up the game show for a 10-episode revival. The alphabet network’s producing the updated talent competition—complete with panel of celebrity judges—with Sony Pictures Television, which franchised the original series. Chuck Barris, who created The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, was the original host and producer. If your recollection of the Gong Show’s a little fuzzy, allow us to refresh your memory with this video of Gene Gene The Dancing Machine.
Will Arnett is executive producing the series via his Electric Avenue Productions, but he will not be doing the hosting honors, more’s the pity. Alec Baldwin’s stint as emcee on the new Match Game (which ABC also nabbed) turned out to be a goddamn delight, after all, but we’ll just have to imagine the withering comments from a similarly whiskey-voiced Arnett. The Gong Show, which saw a cable revival in 2008, will be filmed in front of a live studio audience.