Martin Short Hosting a Game Show? It’s a Match!

ABLUpdated 11 hours Ago1 Mins read1

ABC has some blanking good news for fans of classic game shows — and of comedy icons who hail from Canada. The network is once again reviving the star-studded, big-money 1970s comedy panel show Match Game, and it snagged Only Murders in the Building star Martin Short to serve as host, Vulture has learned. The latest iteration of the series is expected to begin production in Montreal in the near future for a potential premiere on ABC as soon as this summer.

The 2025 reboot of Match Game arrives about five years after the last iteration of the FremantleMedia North America–controlled franchise ended production following a successful five-season run on the ABC. That iteration was hosted by actor and recent reality star Alec Baldwin and taped in New York. The original incarnation of the format ABC is rebooting premiered in 1973 with host Gene Rayburn and ran on either CBS or in syndication through 1982. There was another, non-comedic version of Match Game, also hosted by Rayburn, that aired on CBS in the 1960s. BuzzerBlog broke the news of a potential return of the series, and the Montreal taping site, last month.

Casting Short for this new revival obviously gives Match Game 2025 another well-known name as emcee, but it’s also a synergistic slam dunk: New episodes of Match Game will stream on Hulu hours after the debut on ABC, while the Alphabet network airs older seasons of Short’s Emmy-winning Only Murders. What’s more, having Short on board probably won’t hurt in landing celebrity panelists for the series. Short will executive produce the project along with Alycia Rossite (Wish List Games, To Tell the Truth).

In case you missed the 2016–20 revival, the 1970s edition, or any of the other reboots over the decades, Match Game features a pair of civilian players trying to guess how a panel of six celebs will answer fill-in-the-blank questions designed to produce comedic answers. To wit, this example from Match Game ’90: “Donald Trump is so rich, not only does he have a phone in his limo, he has a blank in it.”