Osbournes back on US TV
2008-07-08 14:05
Los Angeles - British rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his raucous family - former stars of MTV - are headed back to US television as hosts of a prime-time variety hour in the works for the Fox network.
No precise air date has been set, but a spokesman for the broadcaster said the show, featuring musical performances and comedy sketches, is planned for sometime in the upcoming 2008-2009 season.
Fox alternative programming president, Mike Darnell, told Daily Variety he hopes to launch the series with a Christmas special.
Envisioned as a throwback to variety classics hosted in the 1970s by Sonny and Cher and by Donny and Marie Osmond, the show will reunite Ozzy Osbourne and his wife, Sharon, with daughter Kelly, 23, and son Jack, 22, last seen together on the MTV reality show The Osbournes.
The new series will be produced by James Sunderland, whose credits also include the NBC talent competition series America's Got Talent, featuring Sharon Osbourne as one of the judges.
Among the ideas being tossed around for the series are audience-participation segments, pre-recorded bits outside the studio and a mini-game show, as well as musical performances by the Osbournes and guests.
The family became overnight pop culture sensations several years ago on their expletive-filled and heavily bleeped reality series which premiered in March of 2002 and instantly became MTV's biggest hit.
Fox has ordered six episodes of the new show so far.