Mythbusters Team To Launch New Show — A Scripted Drama
Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage will be launching a new show to launch on CBS, but it won’t have much in common with the science and explosions-centered show that they’re best known for. Well, actually, there may be science and explosions. The difference is, unlike Mythbusters, this show will be a scripted drama. The two will be executive producers on the show, as on Mythbusters, but unlike the popular reality show, they won’t be the on-screen talent.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will be inspired by Adam and Jamie’s real-life experiences — but instead of taking their special effects experience to Mythbusters, a reality show devoted to testing myths and trying out scenes from action movies, the pair are hired by the CIA to carry out missions using their skills and tricks.
The two have a far wider range of combined experience than they’ve been able to showcase on Mythbusters — Jamie Hyneman has worked in wilderness survival and has a degree in Russian linguistics, among other things. Adam Savage’s skills have been more closely linked to the show: toy-making, model-making, and carpentry — but he also has experience in graphic design and as a projectionist.
Mythbusters itself has been in a state of change for a while. At this same time last year, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara left the show, with no advance warning to fans — Adam and Jamie announced it at the end of the team’s last Mythbusters episode.
At that point, fans began to wonder if Mythbusters‘ days were numbered, and to speculate whether this was a cost-cutting operation to try to save the show. However, as of now, there’s no sign that the show is coming to an end, though the finale for the current season airs tonight.
In fact, all signs point to the opposite. Adam and Jamie announced, in March that Jamie would be retiring from the Mythbusters live tours, commemorating his exit with a special Mythbusters Farewell Tour running through November and December.
If the show was coming to a planned end, the team would likely be billing the tour as a farewell for both, rather than just Jamie, and would refer to close of show, rather then specifically identifying his retirement as from the tour only.
Nerdist has described the upcoming show as the Mythbusters being paid “to produce fan fiction about themselves.” If that descriptor proves a fair assessment, there’s no question that the result will be a fan-pleaser.
[Photo by:Michael Buckner/Getty Images]