‘The Chase’ & ‘The Hustler’ Renewed At ABC As Network Unveils Summer Unscripted Schedule With Shows Including ‘Bachelor In Paradise’

ABC has unveiled its summer unscripted schedule and it looks like things are back to normal after last year’s Covid interruption.

The Disney-owned network has renewed gameshows including The Chase and The Hustler and has confirmed that Bachelor in Paradise will return this summer after missing out in 2020.

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The network’s slate of classic gameshow reboots such as Celebrity Family Feud, To Tell the Truth, Press Your Luck, The $100,000 Pyramid and Card Sharks are also back alongside new shows The Celebrity Dating Game, hosted by Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton, and The Ultimate Surfer.

The Bachelorette, which ABC revealed recently will have two iterations, this year, is also set on the schedule for June with Katie Thurston kicking off proceedings.

Rob Mills, EVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, Walt Disney Television, told Deadline that he was thrilled to be able to get so many shows on this summer. “The year before the pandemic, we had made a play to really program summer like we programmed the rest of the year and have original programming on almost every night. Then things kind of got slowed down with the pandemic and we had to pull some of our shows last summer. Now the fact that we can produce all these shows and we’re going to have new original programming on almost the entire summer, it feels great.”

The Chase, an adaptation of the British gameshow from ITV Entertainment, is back with a second season. The show launched in January with nine episodes and Deadline understands that the second season has received a supersized order. This comes after the producers and the WGA settled their dispute which had led to a writers’ strike. “The Chase is one of those ones we wanted to get back on as soon as possible because we really want the momentum of that format to keep going,” said Mills. “Hopefully you’ll see million dollar final chases in this second cycle. But we really are high on that format. We’re excited with how it did this winter and we’re glad we can bring it back so quickly.”

Similarly, The Hustler, hosted by Craig Ferguson and based on an idea from Richard Bacon, is back after its launch in January. The show, which is produced by Studio Lambert, follows five contestants as they collaborate to answer a series of 10 trivia questions worth $10,000 each, with the goal of building a collective prize pot that increases with each correct answer but there’s a twist. “Outside of things like Holey Moley, we’re known for our reboots of old franchises,” said Mills. “So, it was really exciting that Steven Lambert came in with something that felt kind of wholly original and something that we could make new and make work.”

As Deadline revealed in February, crazy golf format Holey Moley, is back this summer with one of its two season order. Similarly, as broken by Deadline, the network is launching new unscripted wildlife comedy When Nature Calls this summer, while Emergency Call, hosted by Luke Wilson, will air its five remaining episodes of its ten episode order that launched last year. “It was an interesting and different format and it was really fun to try it. We loved launching it after Dancing With The Stars in the fall and we’re going to give it another run this summer on Fridays at 8pm, because that’s really where Live PD did great. So hopefully there’s still an audience there for that then,” added Mills.

SUMMER SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY, JUNE 4

8:00-9:01 p.m. “Emergency Call”

SUNDAY, JUNE 6

8:00-9:00 p.m. “Celebrity Family Feud”
9:00-10:00 p.m. “The Chase”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “To Tell the Truth”

MONDAY, JUNE 7

8:00-10:00 p.m. “The Bachelorette”

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9

8:00-9:00 p.m. “Press Your Luck”
9:00-10:00 p.m. “The $100,000 Pyramid”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Card Sharks”

MONDAY, JUNE 14

10:00-11:00 p.m. “The Celebrity Dating Game” (series premiere)

THURSDAY, JUNE 17

8:00-9:00 p.m. “When Nature Calls” (WT) (series premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Holey Moley 3D in 2D”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “The Hustler”

MONDAY, AUG. 16

8:00-10:00 p.m. “Bachelor in Paradise”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “The Ultimate Surfer” (series premiere)

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