rewrite this title ‘Match Game’ Returns To ABC With Martin Short As Host

Match Game is back, once again, this time with Martin Short as host.

ABC is bringing the evergreen gameshow back for a new season, four years after it last aired on the Disney-owned network.

Alec Baldwin hosted the last reboot of the show, which launched in 1962 and has aired on CBS, NBC and ABC as well as on syndication. That most recent version of the show ran for five seasons, starting in 2016 with the final batch of episodes airing in summer of 2021.

The series features four contestants each week vying for the chance to win $25,000, as they attempt to match the answers of six celebrities in a game of fill-in-the-blank. 

It is produced by FremantleMedia North America with Short and Alycia Rossiter, who has exec produced series including ABC’s Generation Gap and Supermarket Sweep, serving as executive producers.

Deadline understands that Sarah Jessica Parker had been in talks to be involved in the reboot of the show but a deal wasn’t closed.

Baldwin’s version of the show regularly aired on Sunday nights alongside Celebrity Family Feud and The $100,000 Pyramid on ABC’s Sunday Fun and Games strand but it’s not clear where this new iteration will be scheduled.

That version was also filmed in New York, where the original 1960s show had filmed, but this new version will be shot in Montreal, Canada.

It will sit alongside other unscripted shows on ABC’s schedule including a second season of The Golden Bachelor, Bachelor in Paradise, which returns this summer, Dancing with the Stars, which is heading into its 34th season and the return of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.  

Short is represented by WME and Brillstein Entertainment.