ABC Family Catches Dance Fever
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 1/28/2003 8:53:00 AM
ABC Family, in association with Merv Griffin, is reviving Dance Fever,positioning it as a "reality variety show."
The cable network, owned by The Walt Disney Co., has ordered 13 episodes of the hour-long show, which was created and launched in 1979 by Griffin, officials said Tuesday.
The variety show will search the nation for "America's most talented dancers," as ABC Family put it, with celebrity judges determining the grand-prize winner.
Dance Fever is being produced by Merv Griffin Entertainment and Nash Entertainment, which is also doing another original series for ABC Family, My Life Is a Sitcom.
"This was always one of my favorite series that I brought to television," Griffin said in a prepared statement. "I think it's great that variety-show genres are coming back into the mainstream."
Both ABC Family president Angela Shapiro and senior vice president and head of programming Linda Mancuso said they hope Dance Fever will draw new viewers to the channel.
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