There has to be some intended irony in using a made up word to title a TV spelling competition. Regardless, Spell-Mageddon's title spells out the twist in this spelling-focused competition. People will compete against one another by attempting to spell increasingly challenging words while faced with "hilarious distractions." There's no word on whether or not one of the distractions will be the "Carlton Dance" but if that happens to be the case, the producers hired the right host, as no one dances to Tom Jones better than Alfonso Ribeiro.
ABC Family announced today that Alfonso Ribeiro - best known for playing Carlton Banks in the beloved 90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - will host their new game show Spell-Mageddon. It's like armageddon, with spelling and a hyphen but without the apocalyptic side effects one might expect in a mageddon-esque scenario.
While I probably wouldn't cringe at the idea of Carlton getting his own years-later Fresh Prince sequel series - because, why not? - It's great to see he's found a new TV home, and hosting seems like something the charismatic actor would be great at. Production on the series begins this Monday, and ABC Family already has a spot picked out for it, setting it up on Wednesday nights following Melissa and Joey and Baby Daddy at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT starting July 24.
Ribeiro's made a number of TV appearances over the years since Fresh Prince went off the air in 1996. Just last month, he appeared on The Graham Norton Show to join Will Smith & Son for a bit of dancing.
