Ed Bassmaster‘s antics have earned him 1.8 million subscribers and close to 500 million views on YouTube. Now, Bassmaster is looking to bring that audience to TV with The Ed Bassmaster Show, which will showcase his shtick on Country Music Television (CMT).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Ed Bassmaster Show will be produced by DiGa, the production company run by former MTV execs Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley. DiGa has apparently been keen on Bassmaster for some time. In THR’s report, DiSanto spoke highly of the comedian and prankster, calling him “almost like Ali G meets Eddie Murphy in Nutty Professor.“
The Ed Bassmaster Show won’t take its titular star out of his comfort zone. Instead, Bassmaster will bring viewers the same array of colorful characters he portrays on his YouTube channel. By donning various disguises, Bassmaster will “surprise, confuse and sometimes prank unsuspecting people across America,” according to THR.
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Bassmaster’s previous videos give us plenty of examples of these personalities. Here, for example, is a recent offering in which he dresses as an old woman and messes with passersby:
A show about public pranks may seem like an odd fit for a country music channel, but Bassmaster has apparently been in talks with CMT for some time now. An October 2014 profile of the Philadelphia-based YouTuber noted how he had shot a pilot for CMT, which had the channel’s president “crying” with laughter.
Bassmaster is the latest YouTuber to get his own TV venture. Fellow prankster Jack Vale is one of the other creators who recently made the leap to cable.
