Ellen DeGeneres not only knows how to take a record-breaking selfie, but has also created a highly popular party-game-turned-mobile-application worthy of its own TV show. HLN will turn the talk show host’s Heads Up! app, downloaded over 16 million times around the world, into its own game show.
Hosted by actress and The Real talk show host Loni Love, Heads Up! partners contestants with a celebrity guest, who must dole out clues to get the contestants to correctly guess as many cards as possible from categories like movies, body parts, and accents. So, it’s kind of like The $10,000 Pyramid for a digital-savvy generation. The HLN game show will boast 65 half-hour episodes for its initial season.
Heads Up! will be produced by DeGeneres’ production company A Very Good Production in association with Telepictures. DeGeneres will executive produce the HLN series alongside Ed Glavin, Andy Lassner, Mary Connelly, and Jeff Kleeman.
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“I’m so excited that Heads Up! is going to be a game show,” said DeGeneres in a release. “It’s so fun and addictive. I play it on my show all the time. I play it at home. I played it last night at Jennifer Aniston’s house. She wasn’t home, so please don’t print that part.”
“We’re excited to translate this innovative game app into a TV show on HLN, and create another all-screens experience for our social media audience,” added Albie Hecht, HLN’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. “And to be in business with a break-the-Internet star like Ellen is incredible.”
DeGeneres is definitely no stranger to the online masses. The comedienne’s YouTube channel, which complements her daytime talk show, consistently lands in the weekly charts for most-viewed channels. Stemming from her success on Google’s video platform, DeGeneres launched her own video hub dubbed ellentube. The show host also plans to release exclusive clips on the new video platform Vessel.
You’ll be able to watch Heads Up! on HLN in the first quarter of 2016. New 30-minute episodes will air daily, Monday through Friday.
