Jackass Star Returning To Television With New Prank Series
Johnny Knoxville will host a new show called The Prank Panel.
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The Jackass franchise is one for the history books, with a noted first series on MTV in the early aughts that ran for three short seasons, to several film versions that have spanned the better part of 20 years. Johnny Knoxville is a fixture of the franchise as one of the creators and stars of the original Jackass, taking dangerous antics to a new level with pranks and stunts aimed at making fun of the other cast members and displaying indecent behavior from adult men looking for a laugh. According to a report by Deadline, Johnny Knoxville will be returning to his television roots with a new prank reality series akin to the Jackass theme, which will be produced by ABC and referred to as The Prank Panel.
Johnny Knoxville will lead The Prank Panel alongside comedian Eric André and Academy Award-nominated actor Gabourey Sidibe as the three stars will be the new series’ “pranxperts” panel, mentoring and also sabotaging those who come onto the show to pitch pranks to them that target families, friends, and coworkers.
The panel will be involved in helping these people plan their pranks, and celebrity guests will be invited to the series to participate as well. André and Knoxville will serve as Executive Producers of The Prank Panel along with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel who is often known for his pranks on children during Halloween where parents pretend to eat their kids’ candy and Kimmel shows the kids’ reaction to the devastating news.
Prior to Johnny Knoxville’s work on The Prank Panel, the Tennessee native has been known as one of the lead stunt performers and writers of the Jackass franchise, which costarred Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Dave England, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Ehren McGhehey, and Preston Lacy.
Beginning with the first iteration of the popular series in 2000, Jackass morphed into several film versions and a number of producing spin-offs like Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which starred Knoxville in full elderly man makeup and costume as he pranked unsuspecting people around him. The franchise has become a staple of American pop culture over the past two decades that has so far concluded with the 2022 entry, Jackass Forever, but may continue if Knoxville wants to see the franchise go on longer.
Johnny Knoxville has created the reputation and mystique for himself over the years that he is an expert at stunts and pranking, which explains why he might be taking on his next venture with ABC to cohost The Prank Panel with Eric André and Gabourey Sidibe.
However, the comedian has tried his hand at professional acting in the past, with notable appearances in 2002’s Men in Black II with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, 2004’s Walking Tall alongside Dwayne Johnson, The Ringer, 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Megan Fox and Will Arnett, as well as the new Hulu television series that came out last month entitled Reboot, which costars Keegan-Michael Key, Paul Reiser, Rachel Bloom, and Judy Greer.
