In what other world could you see Marilyn Manson pull out Charles Manson’s skeleton or Mariah Carrey sing to a pitch that makes Jim Carrey’s head explode other than through glorious claymation? That’s right – it’s Celebrity Deathmatch, which pitted “rivals” against one another to see who came out the survivor. But could the show itself survive in 2025? Creator Eric Fogel thinks so.
Celebrity Deathmatch has been off the air for nearly 20 years – and even longer without Fogel, who wasn’t involved with the revival, which kicked off with Paris Hilton vs. Nicole Richie – yes, the show is very much of its time. And it’s that sort of element that Fogel thinks could make it ripe for a new generation. “That’s the beauty of the show — it’s timeless. These matches are iconic. You could literally open Google and type a few words, and you’ll get a whole bunch of new Celebrity Deathmatch ideas. It’s an evergreen concept. I was just browsing this morning. Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel hate each other. You know, Will Smith and Chris Rock probably still hate each other? Taylor Swift and Kanye West is still a match I’d like to visit in the ring…It feels like there are still some unresolved issues there. It’s such a fertile, fertile environment. I feel like you could bring it back tomorrow, and people would tune into it.”
As for how Celebrity Deathmatch came to be, it combined two of Fogel’s passions. “I started thinking of all the things that I loved — professional wrestling and making fun of celebrities. I thought if I could sort of mix that with that claymation style, you could have something really special…The MTV execs, they weren’t quite seeing it, and it took about a year of me and my producing partner at the time, a guy named John Lynn, sort of repeatedly whispering into the ear of the president of MTV. After about a year of annoying him, he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
There have been various attempts to resurrect Celebrity Deathmatch but it does feel like it would be hard to find an audience now. Sure, there are plenty of celeb feuds and fantasy rivalries to pluck from, but it all feels like a very late ‘90s/early ‘00s territory. Then again, maybe it could work as a YouTube series with episodes dropping the week of/after a new hot topic hits the web?
If Celebrity Deathmatch were to return, who would you want to see step into the ring and beat the clay out of each other?
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