Who better to host a car racing competition than a Fast and Furious star? Tyrese Gibson has played Roman Pearce in the Fast franchise since 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003. Now he's both hosting and co-executive producing a new series called Celebrity Grand Prix.
Tyrese teamed up with Survivor and The Voice producer Mark Burnett and MGM Television for the show, The Wrap reports. Celebrity Grand Prix pits celebrities against each other in a professional car race. Stars "from all walks of life" will be trained by professional race car drivers and then they'll face off on the track. The star with the lowest time each week will be eliminated.
Sounds like it could be fun. It'll be interesting to see what celebs they get for this. There are plenty of car-loving celebs out there. Maybe Jay Leno would sign on, and get Chris Evans to show up in the Camaro Robert Downey Jr. custom-designed for him.
No network is attached to Celebrity Grand Prix yet, but everyone on board sounds pretty excited about it, including Tyrese himself:
I couldn’t be more honored or grateful to be an executive producer and host of this show. It’s been an amazing feeling to have been approached by the team at MGM as this idea falls directly into my wheelhouse. Working with the legendary Mark Burnett and being part of the creative process with him and the amazing team he’s assembled including Barry Poznick, Sasha Bushnell and Tiffany Hubbert is a force to be reckoned with! I can’t wait to unleash this energy to the world.
Barry Poznick, president of Unscripted Television at MGM, added these words of the newly announced host:
Tyrese is the real deal in front of and behind the cameras and he’s involved in all aspects of production. This show is every adrenaline junkie's dream.
In his own statement, Mark Burnett added that the show will give viewers an insider's look into what goes on behind-the-scenes of the race track.
In addition to Celebrity Grand Prix, Tyrese has also joined the upcoming Sony's Marvel Universe movie Morbius. He recently shared his excitement at booking that "3 picture Marvel deal":
Tyrese has played Roman Pearce in five Fast films so far, but he is also known for playing Robert Epps in the Transformers movies. He has another movie, Black and Blue, opening this September.
And, of course, he's also known for his apparently one-sided feud with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Tyrese was upset when The Rock moved forward with his Hobbs and Shaw spinoff movie because it delayed production on Fast and Furious 9. It's not clear yet who exactly will be in Fast 9 beyond Vin Diesel and Jordana Brewster, but the movie just started pre-production so more details should be coming soon.
Stay tuned for any updates on Celebrity Grand Prix finding a network and a premiere date. In the meantime, keep up with everything currently airing on TV during midseason 2019.
