‘The Will’ Jumps from ABC to CBS

Last year it was reported that ABC was developing a new show, The Will, with the producers of The Bachelor. Not much was heard about it for a while, but now it turns out that ABC has decided to pass on the idea – but CBS has picked it up.

The idea of the show remains the same, though CBS is making some unspecified changes. The core theme is that a family will compete to win an inheritance from a wealthy relative. Indeed, it is this very theme that earned CBS a “Jeer” from TV Guide for picking up the show, calling it “ghoulishly-cruel sounding.”

Nevertheless, CBS is ready to begin casting – I guess looking for a family with a rich relative who wants to give away all of his or her money based on a gameshow rather than on who he or she likes the best. Depending on how long it takes and how well the final product comes out, we could see it as early as this summer or perhaps in the 2004-5 season. The network has contracted for seven episodes.

Producers say, in perhaps an unintentional pun, that the tone of the show will be “dead serious.” They added that we can expect to see family rivalries arise: “The bottom line is, you’re going to see some guy who hates Uncle Charlie take Uncle Charlie out of the competition. And that’s going to be a lot sweeter than even a rose ceremony, where everyone’s only known each other for a few weeks.”

The producers are reportedly excited about working with CBS – their first time doing so – in part because CBS does such a good job of supporting their reality shows. ABC, on the other hand, has provided a number of extremely poor reality shows, other than The Bachelor series, and has even spoken out against reality shows – but then went back and scheduled more of them. It’s no wonder the producers would rather work with CBS on this one, which is certain to pick up more criticism before the first episode even airs.

So if you are rich and don’t know what to do with your money before you die – give it to RealityNewsOnline! But if you also want television exposure for your whole family, contact CBS.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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