Deadline Hollywood is reporting that the return of “Mythbusters” has been set for the Science Channel on November 15, 2017, at 9 p.m. eastern. The new season will be the first for the new team, Brian Louden and Jon Lung, who were selected in a competition in a special season of the series called “Mythbusters: The Search” that ran in late 2016 and early 2017. The original series ran on the Discovery Channel from 2003 through early 2016 and can be seen on reruns on the Science Channel.
The enduring appeal of ‘Mythbusters’
Whoever had the original idea of pairing a couple of special effects wizards, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, and have them test urban myths using engineering and science has to be counted as among the great geniuses of television programming.
The on camera chemistry between the two performers, the taciturn Hyneman and the flamboyant Savage, went a long way to make the show attractive. The fact that many of the experiments involved blowing things up. Shooting awesome firearms, and dropping things from great heights helped as well.
The “B Team” of Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, and Kari Byron were an appealing group as well. Their termination at the end to the second to last season of “Mythbusters” likely led to the demise of the original show.
In any case, kids from eight to 80 would watch “Mythbusters” and learn a little bit of science and engineering through projects that they definitely should not try at home – ever. Audiences could reflect on the fact that the original Mythbusters had one of the best jobs in the world.
How will the new show be received?
Some hint of how the new version of “Mythbusters” is going to be received is the fact that “Mythbusters: The Search” was fairly popular with audiences. The special season mostly avoided the personal drama that other reality shows used to bump up tension and relied primarily on the fascinating details of the experiments that were being conducted.
Some of the myths that the Deadline Hollywood article reveals seem fascinating, to say the least. They will involve “Rocket Powered swords, exploding gas tanks, airbag disasters and more.” One cannot wait to see what a rocket powered sword is going to look like.
The new season will be the first in which the two winners of the reality show competition are going to work together. Will they develop the kind of on air chemistry that made the first version of the series so appealing? Fans have several months to mull that question over. The answer will come as winter arrives.
