Back in the '70s, The Gong Show featured future celebrities as competitors that included Paul Reubens, Cheryl Lynn, and Broadway's original Annie star Andrea McArdle. The 2017 ABC reboot is just getting started, so any famous discoveries have yet to be determined. If The Gong Show reboot gets a Season 2, then those who have appeared on the first season so far will get that chance. Sadly, ABC has yet to make a decision about the latest iteration, but there's a lot about the show that makes a second season both likely and necessary.
Ratings have dropped a bit, according to TVLine, but that's not necessarily a cause for worry. A show as quirky as this and as relatively easy to produce can take the time to find its diehard audience. In 2016, ABC renewed all four game shows — three of which were only one season in at the time. They're willing to keep a good thing going and take a risk from time to time.
The variety show and talent competition, which, according to Entertainment Weekly is hosted by Mike Myers in makeup playing fictional British comedian Tommy Maitland, is a bizarre program. The amateur acts that compete for a prize range from one man bands, ventriloquists, clowns, and something called a "butt puppet."
Celebrity judges have the opportunity to hit a gong and stop an act as long as they justify their choice. For a handful of Hollywood's favorite funny people, that is hardly a problem. Season 1 has welcomed Joel McHale, Priyanka Chopra, Jack Black, Regina Hall, and executive producer Will Arnett as just some of the gong-ing panelists. Is it better to keep watching a strange performance, or make fun of it? That is the eternal question that The Gong Show poses.
There's surely plenty of talent out there for more seasons. As The Hollywood Reporter notes in their review of the series, it's impressive that there are people who have honed these amateur performances and skills in the first place.
If the show does return for Season 2, it'll likely air in the summer again, because something this weird belongs in the off-season. Plus, it's easier to book TV stars as judges when they aren't filming their own projects. A cult game show is a difficult thing to nail, but the Gong Show Season 2, if and when it happens, will do its best to reach that status.
