Although Mike Myers got his big break on the small screen thanks to his gig on Saturday Night Live, he's probably best known nowadays for his contributions to the big screen in franchises like Austin Powers and Shrek. Now, Myers may be heading back to TV for a brand new job, but... well, it's not exactly clear. News broke today that ABC has chosen British comedian Tommy Maitland as host for its revival of The Gong Show, but it turns out that Tommy Maitland didn't seem to exist until quite recently, and he looks an awful lot like Mike Myers in prosthetic makeup. Check him out:
The photo of Tommy Maitland comes from his Twitter account, which is just one step that seems to have been taken to establish him as somebody who definitely exists and was not just invented for the purposes of a game show reboot. The story gets even more elaborate in a press release from ABC, which reveals that "Thomas Winston Maitland" was born in 1944 in the U.K. He became known when he began work as an announcer for a British radio show and landed minor roles in the Carry On film franchise.
According to ABC, he wrote a book, made 11 films, is hugely popular in Italy, and made a huge impression on Will Arnett when Arnett was a teenager. Arnett is executive producing The Gong Show for ABC, and he reportedly specifically reached out to Maitland to work as host. Maitland has openly admitted to coming out of retirement for The Gong Show for the money, and he told THR that he already has two potential catchphrases picked out.
Based on the uncanny resemblance between this "Tommy Maitland" and Mike Myers, Myers' history of wearing prosthetics to play a wide range of characters, and the fact that THR has hinted that Myers and Maitland are one and the same in the wake of an interview, I'd say that the odds are pretty good that we'll be seeing Mike Myers tackling hosting duties on The Gong Show when it debuts on ABC this summer. That said, we might not get confirmation of his involvement for a while, if at all. If Myers and Maitland are the same person, then ABC, Myers, and Will Arnett all went to pretty great lengths to sell the ruse. Kudos to them for going all-out, I suppose. If anybody could pull this off, I'd definitely put my money on Myers.
We can confirm some of the other folks who will appear on The Gong Show. Celebrity judges who will weigh in on contestants' talents (or lack thereof) will include Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Alison Brie, Andy Samberg, Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale, Dana Carvey, Will Forte, Anthony Anderson, and Jack Black. Tune in to ABC on Thursday, June 22 at 10 p.m. ET to catch "Tommy Maitland" in his Gong Show hosting debut, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well.
