The Alec Baldwin-hosted game show Match Game is no more. ABC has dropped the star and the show while denying it had anything to do with the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last year.
Hollywood trade outlet Variety reports “ABC’s decision to cancel ‘Match Game’ is not related to that incident” and new episodes have not been filmed since the since 2020, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The last time episodes aired was in summer 2021, according to Deadline.
Baldwin representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
The fate of Match Game had been the source of speculation in the wake of Baldwin’s accidental shooting of Hutchins on the set of the independent production Rust last fall.
The latest revival of Match Game as hosted by Baldwin debuted in 2016 and ran for five seasons.
On launching, the Emmy-winning actor was tipped to be receiving “one of the highest game-show-hosting salaries ever” for the initial 10-episode series, as Breitbart News reported.
Baldwin said he would donate his fee from the show to his wife Hilaria’s charity.
Alec Baldwin and late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. ABC News/Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie
Produced by Fremantle, the show centered on four contestants competing for $25,000 as they tried to match the answers of six celebrities in a game of fill-in-the-blank.
Match Game 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.
According to Variety, the celebrity guests on its most recent airing have covered a broad spectrum of pop culture, including everyone from Michael Che, Cheryl Hines, Jason Alexander, and Caitlyn Jenner, to Ice-T, J.B. Smoove, Ellie Kemper, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Baldwin was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy as Best Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program in 2017.
In November of 2020 the actor said he was having “a ball” hosting the show, calling it one of the “weird quilt of jobs” that allowed him to work in New York City and remain close to his family, the Daily Mail reports.