Konami is capitalizing on the Frogger brand for a new reality competition series for Peacock, NBC Universal’s streaming service. The classic arcade game will be adapted into the TV show Frogger, described as a “fierce and ridiculously fun competition” in which contestants compete in 12 themed obstacle courses. And yes, that includes dodging “treacherous traffic.”
According to a news release, Frogger contestants will also have to “leap over snapping gators and hop over hungry hippos to conquer the course.” Presumably, those wild animals will be simulated as part of a relatively safe obstacle course in the vein of Wipeout, Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, and American Ninja Warrior — in part because Peacock pitches its new game show as “a wild, whimsical Frogger world.”
Frogger is being produced by Eureka Productions. The production company’s other shows include ABC’s Holey Moley and Netflix’s Dating Around. Thirteen hourlong episodes of Frogger have been ordered.
The original Frogger was developed by Konami and released in arcades by Sega and Gremlin in 1981. The game tasks players with guiding a family of frogs across a dangerous five-lane highway and an equally treacherous river. Frogger has spawned dozens of sequels and spinoffs over the past five decades, most recently Frogger in Toy Town for Apple Arcade from developer Q-Games.
Frogger had a short-lived TV presence in the early 1980s, thanks to Saturday Supercade, an animated series that featured Konami’s famous frog alongside Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, and Pitfall Harry. In Saturday Supercade, Frogger was a reporter at The Swamp Gazette, chasing stories and avoiding threats like alligators and traffic.
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