Uno is set to be adapted into a television game show as part of Mattel’s new range of unscripted content.
Popular card game Uno is being developed into a reality game show by the television and production division of toy company Mattel. The Uno Game Show is part of a new slate of unscripted shows being developed by Mattel Television, which is best known for producing series such as Thomas & Friends and Netflix’s Barbie Princess Adventure.
Variety reported that the game maker is collaborating with Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens and Greg Lipstone of Propagate – the creators of series such as Chopped and Running Wild with Bear Grylls – with John Quinn, the showrunner of the long-running daytime game show Let’s Make a Deal as executive producer. No network is currently attached to the project.
Uno – which is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year – was developed by Merle Robbins in 1971. With a deck of cards consisting of red, yellow, green, and blue cards in addition to the Wild and Wild Draw Four cards, the game lasts several rounds as players compete to score 500 points before fellow players by being the first to play all of one’s own cards and scoring points from those of your rivals.
The series, which will feature audience participation, physical challenges, and trivia, is set to convert the fun family card game into a four-team competition to become the ultimate Uno champion. This is Mattel’s latest attempt to turn the game into a television series after having partnered with Gurin Company in 2013.
Adam Bonnett, the executive producer of Mattel Television, said: “Uno is the most popular game in the world and is a fixture in pop culture, making it the ideal franchise to build a reality game show around.”
Silverman and Owens added the following:
