TBS Picks Up Game Show “Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host” For Ten Episodes

This one certainly came out of left field. This afternoon, TBS announced that they have picked up the comedic game show Trust Me, I’m a Game Show Host from Mark Burnett and his collaborators for ten episodes to start airing late in the year. The premise of the show, according to the press release, is that two hosts are each trying to deceive a contestant by giving a right answer and a wrong answer to a posed question. In order to make it to the farthest point in the game, the contestant must always side with the host that is correct. You may recall that Trust Me has been in the developmental cycles for years, with ABC ordering a pilot for the series way back in 2010, nominating Mo Rocca and Bill Engvall as hosts.

They taped a pilot for the format later in the year, which differs from the version TBS has picked up in that the entire audience was serving as contestant, versus TBS’s announcement of a single player participating. Clearly, ABC decided not to go through with picking up the series. TBS has seen something they like, so expect to see the series in the later end of 2013. The two hosts have not been announced for the program. TBS has dabbled with the game show field in recent years, piloting a version of Match Game in 2008, putting an Andy Richter hosted version of The Pyramid on the developmental slate in 2011 and launching the reality competition King of the Nerds beginning next week. In a related note, TBS also picked up a new hidden camera show from Howie Mandel and associates called Deal With It, where a contestant can win prizes for successfully pranking an accomplice with no preparation.