‘The Gong Show’ Gets Season 2 Premiere Date

The Gong Show is coming back this summer, and we finally have a date to circle on our calendars!

ABC announced that the fan favorite game show will be back Thursday, June 21 at 8 p.m. ET.

The Gong Show features performers showing off their unique talents. At the end of the show, performers with the highest scores get a check for $2,000.17 and a trophy.

The series is the latest incarnation of Chuck Barris’ original iconic show, which ran from 1976 to 1980, first on NBC and then in syndication. It was revived in the late ’80s for one season with San Francisco DJ Don Bleu, then brought back again as Extreme Gong in 1998 on the Game Show Network. Dave Attell also hosted a short-lived rendition on Comedy Central in 2008.

In 2016, Arrested Development star Will Arnett joined forces with ABC to revive the show again. Tommy Maitland, an unknown British comedian character created by Mike Myers, was picked to host. The new version of The Gong Show also features a panel of celebrity judges, including Arnett. Anthony Anderson, Will Forte, Jack Black, Jennifer Aniston, Megan Fox, Alison Brie and Andy Samberg are just a few of the celebrities who joined the panel.

The show was surprisingly popular last summer, averaging 2.797 million viewers and a 0.68 18-49 rating over 10 episodes, reports TV Series Finale. In January, ABC ordered a second season with Maitland returning to host.

“It’s not a competition show where it’s about some dumb judge saying, ‘I think you can have a pop career,’” Arnett said about the show in a 2017 interview with Parade. “And then they try to convince you and everybody in the world that this is the person you are going to like. We haven’t all agreed that we are going to necessarily like this person. If their song is good, fine, but you don’t get to decide if they are a pop star for us.”

He continued, “So, it’s not that. It’s about being entertained in an unconventional way, embracing the unconventional, the different and the weird. That’s what we tried to do.”

The revival also aired months after Gong Show creator Chuck Barris died at age 87. Arnett said Barris died before they began filming episodes. Although he never met Barris, he hoped to honor his legacy.

“We take very seriously what he created. He created and produced a show that has become firmly embedded in the cultural fabric,” Arnett told Parade. “We respect that and we want to make sure that we do him right.”

Photo credit: ABC/Bob D’Amico