Usually when a TV show is brought back to life for new audiences, it’s been off the air for quite some time. But every once in a while, shows are barely gone before they reemerge, and such is the case with the prank series Punk’d, which is saying goodbye (again) to its former MTV home to move to new digs at BET.
As part of a large slate of new programming, BET ordered what will be Season 10 of Punk’d, though won’t exactly be the same series that we’re used to. Presumably, no one should expect to see Ashton Kutcher as the mastermind behind the practical jokes here, as the show is being “tailored for the BET audience,” according to THR. I think we all know what that means.
As well, the show reportedly won’t focus solely on the pranks being played, but they’ll go behind the scenes to show audiences how everything was conceived and put together. I quite like the idea of a small team of people brainstorming the best way to make celebrities look like fools, as I’m sure the rejected ideas will be the most amusing in theory. The wildest scenarios are often those that can’t be done.
Punk’d debuted on MTV in 2003 with pranks pulled on Justin Timberlake and Malcolm in the Middle’s Frankie Muniz. It initially lasted for four years, with two seasons released a year, ending in 2007. It made a brief 12-episode comeback in 2012 for Season 9, with a revolving door of hosts taking over the episodes, such as Justin Bieber and Nick Cannon. Perhaps that same approach will be taken with the new show, and I can’t believe that Cannon isn’t already attached to it.
BET has a huge assortment of new shows in the works beyond Punk’d, as well as a bunch of movies and news specials. As far as original scripted series go, there’s just the one, Zoe Moon, which stars pop musician and actress Brandy Norwood as a newly single mom who is balancing her new career as a cosmetics mogul with living life to the fullest. In the docu-series department, BET is set up for Chasing Destiny, in which Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland is on the prowl for the next great female music group, who must work their way to the top of a heavily competitive world. As well, Washington Redskins wide receiver DeSean Jackson will be the center of DeSean Jackson: Home Team, which will follow his life on and off the field, and his relationships with his mom manager and the rest of his family.
There’s no sign of when Punk’d will make its way to audiences, but we can probably expect to see it hit the airwaves this fall.
