The CW has released a new poster and cast photo for the upcoming Legends of the Hidden Temple reboot! The series, which is set to debut on the network on Sunday, October 10th, is a revival of the popular children's game show that ran on Nickelodeon in the 1990s, but this time around will put adults through their paces exploring the titular temple. The revival had originally been announced for the mobile-only streaming service Quibi before it shuttered and The CW stepped in to bring the show to life.
Last month it was announced that The View alum Cristela Alonzo will host Legends of the Hidden Temple. Alonzo said at the time her casting was announced that she is thrilled to be part of the new version of the show having been a fan of the original.
"Having grown up on 90s pop culture and actually being a fan of the original Legends of the Hidden Temple, I am thrilled to be hosting the new updated version of the show," Alonzo said. "The biggest challenge for me on this show will be trying to simultaneously host it and contain my geeked-out excitement at the same time."
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| Credit: Tina Thorpe / The CW |
"When we decided to revisit Legends of the Hidden Temple, we wanted a host with stature who also had the humor of a stand-up and the energy of a camp counselor," Scott A. Stone, creator and executive producer said. "That's Cristela Alonzo, she's perfect."
You can check out the synopsis for Legends of the Hidden Temple below.
"This supersized, adult version of LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE is taken out of the studio into a “jungle” and scaled up with tougher challenges and much bigger prizes on the line. It preserves the original Nickelodeon series’ favorite elements including: “Olmec” (the giant talking Mayan head), the“Moat Crossings,” “The Steps of Knowledge,” the “Temple Run,” and of course, the iconic team names: “Purple Parrots,” “Blue Barracudas,” “Orange Iguanas,” “Red Jaguars,” “Silver Snakes” and “Green Monkeys.” Every episode is a hero’s journey through a mysterious jungle. Five teams begin the journey, but only one is “strong enough and smart enough” to enter the ominous Olmec’s Temple, avoid the “dreaded” Temple Guards, retrieve a lost treasure, and return it to its rightful owner. Based on the original game show created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone and Stephen R. Brown, LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE is produced by Stone & Company Entertainment and Nickelodeon. The series is executive produced by Scott A. Stone and Marcus Fox (“Paradise Run”)."
Dee Bradley Baker (Avatar: The Last Airbender, American Dad) returns to reprise his iconic role of the voice of Olmec, the giant talking Mayan head.
Legends of the Hidden Temple will debut on The CW on Sunday, October 10th.
From TV Insider:
What to Know About The CW’s ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’ Reboot
In just two weeks, 24,000 fans applied to be on the newly revived Legends of the Hidden Temple.
“We had to cut off applications,” notes executive producer Scott A. Stone, an original creator, on the adult-size reboot of Nickelodeon’s 1993–95 kids’ game show. “When we do an announcement for a new show, generally, we get 1,000 applicants, and that’s amazing. And if we get 2,000 applicants for a hit show, that’s a lot.”
So to say that adults are ready to reenter the Mayan-themed set they dreamed of racing through as children is a total understatement. “There’s so much love in the core 25 to 40-year-old audience,” Stone says, adding that his film students at The University of Southern California used to regularly dress up as the show’s determined contestants for Halloween. “It seems to have touched so many people’s hearts in the best of ways,” he says.
And Stone promises the CW’s reboot contains music of the same onscreen magic. Each hourlong episode — extended from the original’s half-hour installments — requires players to use both their brains and brawn to win a cash prize, with host, comic Cristela Alonzo, cheering them on. “She’s rooting for the contestants like she was doing it herself,” Stone adds, while also teasing, “there is a place for [original host] Kirk Fogg in the series, so you’ll hear about that [too].”
The series’ familiar, colorful team names, like the Blue Barracudas and Silver Snakes remain, as does Olmec, the ancient stone head that speaks (Dee Bradley Baker returns to voice), guiding contestants. Notes Stone: “[Olmec’s] got a bit of a face-lift.”
Legends of the Hidden Temple Nickelodeon
The four rounds, alternating between physical tests and trivia, remain too. Fans will recognize the taxing Moat Crossing, the Steps of Knowledge quiz and the athletic trials dubbed the Temple Games. And since this version is for adults, the educational portion of the competition has been tweaked. Initially, well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin and Amelia Earhart were focused on in the kids’ episodes, but for this take, Stone says, they wanted to dig a bit deeper for tales the contestants can emulate as they play. “We took the classic, epic stories, like the story of Gilgamesh, or the Greek legend of Atlantis, or the Irish legend of Cú Chulainn, and the Norse legend of Freyja — these are classic, really big stories and we’re telling them in a kind of abbreviated form,” he says.
Another big difference? The game’s set is now outside. “I went back to the summer camp I went to as a kid in Indiana, and the lake that I thought was ginormous… was a little pond,” Stone admits. “I didn’t want to have the same problem with people coming back to the show. So, thanks to the folks at the CW, we were able to blow this one up in a giant way. The Moat is huge — [approx.] 10,000 square feet. The Temple is massive. The Temple Guards are big and scary. We were able to make the show on a grand scale.”
And along with memorable rooms like the Pit of Despair, new surprises await in the Temple Run’s final maze. One is the Crypt of the Heartless: “You stick your hand into these scary skeletons and find a heart to put into a receptacle on the wall, and the whole room comes alive with veins,” Stone says. “It’s just beautiful.”
Legends of the Hidden Temple, Series Premiere, Sunday, October 10, 8/7c, The CW
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From ComicBook.com:
Legends of the Hidden Temple: Rock God Preview Released (Exclusive)
The CW has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive first look at a new trailer for Legends of the Hidden Temple, featuring the stone-faced temple idol Olmec and the ironic musical choice of "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Writer, producer, actor and comedian Cristela Alonzo is set to host the series, which is slated to debut on Sunday, October 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Now featuring adult contestants and a larger scale in terms of both its competitions and its prizes, Legends of the Hidden Temple is aiming to take '90s Nick nostalgia and translating it into a bigger, broader version of the game than fans have seen before.
The original series debuted in 1993 and ran until 1995, with 120 episodes during that time. A TV movie based on the in-game story elements aired on Nickelodeon in 2017, proving that there was still some cache to the Legends of the Hidden Temple brand name. The CW is jointly owned by Warner Bros. and ViacomCBS, the latter being Nickelodeon's parent company.
"Having grown up on 90's pop culture and actually being a fan of the original Legends of the Hidden Temple, I am thrilled to be hosting the new updated version of the show," Alonzo said when the announcement was made back in July. "The biggest challenge for me on this show will be trying to simultaneously host it and contain my geeked-out excitement at the same time."
"When we decided to revisit Legends of the Hidden Temple, we wanted a host with stature who also had the humor of a stand-up and the energy of a camp counselor," said Scott A. Stone, Creator and Executive Producer. "That's Cristela Alonzo, she's perfect!"
The original Legends of the Hidden Temple was, like most of Nickelodeon's game shows of the time, set inside a studio and featured young contestants competing in a highly controlled environment in order to keep things as safe as possible. The new incarnation of Legends of the Hidden Temple is taken out of the studio and into a "jungle," and scaled up with tougher challenges and much bigger prizes on the line. It preserves the original Nickelodeon series' favorite elements including Olmec (the giant talking Mayan head), the "Moat Crossings," "The Steps of Knowledge," the "Temple Run," and the team names: "Purple Parrots," "Blue Barracudas," "Orange Iguanas," "Red Jaguars," "Silver Snakes" and "Green Monkeys." Every episode is a hero's journey through a mysterious jungle. Four teams begin the journey, but only one is "strong enough and smart enough" to enter the ominous Olmec's Temple, avoid the "dreaded" Temple Guards, retrieve a lost treasure, and return it to its rightful owner.
Based on the original game show created by David G. Stanley, Scott A. Stone and Stephen R. Brown, Legends of the Hidden Temple is produced by Stone & Company Entertainment and Nickelodeon. The series is executive produced by Scott A. Stone and Marcus Fox.
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