A cross between Battle of the Network Stars and Wipeout, ABC has kicked off yet another celebrity competition series. But, how is the show stacking up — should it be kicked off the schedule?
The Superstars first premiered on ABC in the 1970s as part of Wide World of Sports. That version puts athletic champions against one another in various sports to determine the best overall athlete.
This latest version of Superstars teams celebrities with professional athletes and pits them against one another in a series of competitions. One pair of players is eliminated each week.
The eight celebs are David Charvet, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Dan Cortese, Paige Hemmis, Julio Iglesias Jr., Joanna Krupa, Ali Landry and Estella Warren. The athlete participants are Jennifer Capriati, Brandi Chastain, Robert Horry, Jeff Kent, Kristi Leskinen, Lisa Leslie, Bode Miller and Terrell Owens.
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The six episodes of the competition were shot at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and are co-hosted by Jenn Brown, John Saunders, and Warren Sapp, a competitor on the original version.
The first episode of the celeb-athlete competition aired on June 23rd. Though the participants worked hard to win their games, the show wasn’t a winner in the ratings. The first hour of the premiere attracted just 4.47 million viewers and a 1.5/5 rating/share of the coveted 18-49 demographic. In contrast, a repeat of NCIS drew 10.87 million and a 1.8/6.
The second hour of Superstars dropped to 4.07 million viewers and inched up in the demo to a 1.6/5 rating/share. America’s Got Talent attracted 10.26 million and a 2.9/8.
This week, Superstars’ ratings dipped even further. ABC aired a 90 minute installment. At the start, the show attracted 4.15 million and a 1.2/4. By the end of the show viewership had dropped to just 3.58 million viewers. That helped to put the network in a distant third place for the night.
Considering that there are only a few episodes of Superstars left, it seems likely that the network will let all of them air during July. On the other hand, it seems very unlikely that ABC would bother to bring it back for another season.
What do you think? Is this reality competition a winner or a loser? Keep it or cancel it?
Image courtesy ABC.
I wanted to watch this show, but never could that early. In the summer 7 is a little too early to watch tv. My main reason for wanting to watch was to see Maks!
I tried to watch the last show. It was preempted by a replay of “The Bachelorette” Someone please tell me which team won? Was the show toast before the finale?
I really liked this show. My main gripe is that ABC didnt give it’s own show, Dancing with the Stars, the credit that it deserves when they cast Maxim Chmerkovskiy as a celebrity and not an athlete. As a fan of Dancing with the Stars, I was familiar with all the dancers athletic ability and figured right from the start that Max’s team was a shoe in because they had two athlete’s on their team.
I hope ABC does bring this show back as summer entertainment. It reminded me of my childhood watching Battle of the Network Stars.
I love this series. I think the competitions are fun, and the commentator is improving, although replacing him with a more dynamic speaker and personality may be in order. What was ABC thinking when they preempted the finale for a rerun? Don’t they think that followers of the Batcherette would watch it on the night aired? And what about the feelings and desires of those who love the Superstars? Don’t they count for something? Anyway, glad to see that it will air next week. Hopefully ABC won’t yank this one as well!
love the superstars. keep it on
Wow, finally, found something on last nights suppose to be finale!
Started watching show becase of Robert Horry, I’m a huge fan
since the Lakers then the Spurs. Enjoyed the show please bring
it back……
glad to hear that the finale will be played next week because i was very bummed that it was not on last night. like cathy, i have watch EVERY episode!!
@Cathy: The finale was preempted and will run next week.
What stinks is that they did not air the finale here in danville virginia tonight like they were suppose to. What happened? I have seen every episode and loved it but now I don’t get to see the finale???
i agree the show – good. the stars – lame.
Its a good competition show! Most episodic TV is so unrealistically contrived it does nothing to hold the attention. The Shows ratings would do better with bigger stars. Everybody would tune to watch a Jay Z and Beyonce team. I am right? Keep it!
Cancel it! Cancel it now! This kind of crap doesn’t belong on weekly prime time slots. It reminds me of ‘Battle of the Network Stars’, which was broadcast at a proper time, on Saturday afternoons. I can’t believe anyone actually watches this garbage.
Get rid of it!! I dont want to see shows that show famous people being more famous
This season is getting better. They did a terrible job with the editing/announcing on the premiere. Second show was better, more interaction between the celebs and stars. Makes for better tv.
Keep it for this season, then do better at putting some drama into it.