“Candy Crush,” a game show based on the mobile game franchise where players match colorful candies in combinations of three or more, premieres at 9:02 p.m. Sunday evening on CBS.
The television version has two-player teams using their wits and physical agility as they compete on interactive game boards 20 feet, 4 11/16 inches wide by 25 feet, 9 and 1/16 inches tall that set a Guinness world record for the largest touch-screen display. The boards have 55, 55-inch monitors with 32 cameras recording the contestants’ hand swipes.
“Our goal was to take Candy Crush off the phone and make it a real-life experience,” said executive producer Matt Kunitz, who was an executive producer of the NBC stunt show “Fear Factor” and the ABC game show “Wipeout.”
“The difference between the app and our show is that we’ve added a physical element” with contestants physically interacting with the board, Kunitz said. “They might be flying above the board, they might be bungeeing up and down the board, they might be running on the board.”
The television version will “feel familiar” to fans of the mobile game, “but we’ve taken it to a whole new level,” Kunitz said.
Sunday evening’s contestants are “Survivor” and “Big Brother” alumni, including Paul Abrahamian, a 24-year-old clothing company owner from Tarzana who was the runner-up for the 2016 season of “Big Brother” and is a houseguest again this season.
The other contestants include Jeremy Collins, the winner of “Survivor: Cambodia,” and Frankie Grande, a houseguest on the 2014 season of “Big Brother 16” and the older half-brother of singer Ariana Grande.
Next Sunday’s episode is a family edition, with parents and their children teaming up in search of the $100,000 prize.
“I love games and I love competing so this was a perfect match for me,” said host Mario Lopez.
–City News Service