Actor Alec Baldwin is set to executive produce and host a remake of the popular 1960s game show Match Game for ABC this summer.
According to Deadline, the 58-year-old Emmy-winning actor will receive “one of the highest game-show-hosting salaries ever” for the new 10-episode series, which will air Sunday nights this summer as part of ABC’s expanded Sunday Fun and Games game show block.
Baldwin will reportedly donate his fee from the show to his wife Hilaria’s charity. However, Deadline reports that the actor could also make a tidy sum from a potential syndicated offshoot of the classic game show.
“I am beyond grateful to ABC and FremantleMedia for the chance to host a summer series of the legendary Match Game,” Baldwin said in a statement. “Hilaria and I are thrilled to donate this fee to arts-related charities. And we look forward to having a lot of fun.”
Match Game, which features two contestants who must guess celebrities’ answers in fill-in-the-blank puzzles, originally debuted in 1962 on NBC and ran for seven seasons. The highly popular game show has been rebooted in several varieties since then, including a crossover with Hollywood Squares in 1982. The series was most recently revived in syndication from 1998-99.
Baldwin has won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards and has hosted Saturday Night Live several times, most recently in 2015. The actor was memorably fired from his MSNBC talk show in 2013 for launching an anti-gay tirade at a photographer.
Match Game premieres June 26 on ABC.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum.
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