Primetime game shows were all the rage this summer, as audiences ate up celebrity-filled revivals of past classics. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon's execs have been busy bringing the network's own past hits back for modern audiences. Both of those points have come together for the magical announcement that Nickelodeon will be honoring that most fantastic of children's game shows, Double Dare, with a new special that will celebrate the show's 30th anniversary. And nobody celebrates a Dirty Thirty like Double Dare.
Airing on Wednesday, November, 23, the upcoming anniversary special will reteam host Marc Summers with the show's first announcer John Harvey and the multi-talented assistant Robin Marella. Viewers will get to see vintage moments from the show's prolific run - 525 episodes in seven seasons - as well as behind-the-scenes footage. You can bet that Double Dare's first reemergence in 2016, the live event staged at the San Diego Comic-Con, will also get some attention. And if you miss that first airing, the special will play again right after.
It was exactly three decades ago, on October 6, 1986, that Double Dare aired its first episode on Nickelodeon, kicking off the kid-friendly obsession with turning everything in the real world into an obstacle course. It was popular enough to get a Family Double Dare sorta-spinoff and even a short-lived celebrity version. Not to mention the also short-lived Double Dare 2000 comeback. It's a shame that the anniversary telecast will only be an hour long, since you could fill that time with just a supercut of people unable to find the flag in that damned nose.
But let's get down to the brass tacks of this announcement, people. A 30th anniversary special is great and all, but we're really hoping Nickelodeon is using the feedback to gauge how smart it would be to get behind an official Double Dare reboot. After all, the special is airing during the same weekend as the network's anticipated Legends of the Hidden Temple TV movie, so they're definitely shooting for nostalgia here. And the same thing is seemingly being done with classic Nicktoons Hey Arnold and Rocko's Modern Life, both of which are getting feature-length TV revivals that could lead to episodic returns. Similar things could happen to other favorites like Rugrats, too.
Mark Summers has talked for years about bringing Double Dare back for new audiences, and this new special could be our best chance yet to see it happen. So we should all make a concentrated effort to watch it and for parents to get their kids interested in it and so on. Together, we can turn this from a mental challenge into a physical one! And then we can move onto securing a reboot for a VR version of Nick Arcade.
To reiterate, just in case you had slime in your ears and eyes earlier, the upcoming 30th anniversary special for Double Dare will air on Nickelodeon on Wednesday, November 23, at 9:00 p.m. ET. That's going to be one hell of a weekend for '90s kids. To see when everything else is coming to your TVs later this year, check out our fall premiere schedule.
