Get ready for the Candy Crush TV show

Steven Loeb · October 18, 2016 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/47ac

The popular mobile game is being turned into a game show on CBS

When Activision bought Candy Crush studio King for a whopping $5.9 billion late last year and then, just a few days later, announced that it was launching a new film and television studio, I feared the worst: that we'd get a Candy Crush movie. That idea seemed especially likely with the success of the Angry Birds Movie earlier this year.

Now that prospect, thankfully, seems to be off the table, at least for now, but instead we're getting the second best (worst?) thing: a Candy Crush television show.

On Tuesday, CBS announced a new one-hour, live action game show series based on the Candy Crush mobile game franchise. Details about how the game will actually work seem to be somewhat scarce at the moment, but this is how the company describes it:

"In the series, the game that has become a worldwide phenomenon comes to life as teams of two people use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology to conquer CANDY CRUSH and be crowned the champions."

I really hope that those game boards aren't digital; I really want to see contestants actually crushing that candy, not just pushing on a screen! Executive producer MattKunitz is the mind behind shows like "Fear Factor" and "Wipeout," so he seems like the right perso to make a show like this at least a little bit off the wall.

“The Candy Crush franchise lends itself perfectly to the kind of larger-than-life, physical game shows that I love to produce and CBS is the perfect home for it,” Kunitz said in a statement. “As a Candy Crush Saga player myself, I am excited to amp up the action and visuals in our huge Candy Crush Arena."

There is currently no assigned host for the show, but I'm rooting for Neil Patrick Harris, aka the guy who doesn't seem to be able to turn down any chance to host something. He would bring the right energy that a show like this would need.

Candy Crush might seem like an odd title to hinge a new show on, considering that its time in the sun has likely come and gone already, though it still remains popular. It is no longer a top 10 overall app, as it was back in 2013. It's not even in the top 100, which is where it was at the beginning of 2016, having now dropped down to number 130, but it is still one of the most popular games in the U.S., at number 41.

On average, 18 billion game rounds are still played every month around the world, so there could be a sizable audience for the show.

This is not the first time that an aging mobile game franchise has looked to television as a way to get some of that old magic back in its step. Back in 2012, it was announced that there would be a TV game show version of Draw Something. Remember Draw Something? One person would draw a picture and the other has to guess what it was.

The television show which was supposed to involve teams of celebrities and ordinary people competing (think of it basically as a 21st century version of Win, Lose or Draw). The series never actually made it to air, though.

There was also a TV version of You Don't Know Jack back in 2001, but that one only lasted for six episodes.

Ok, so maybe TV shows based on video games don't have the best track record, but at least we're getting something better than this: