One thing of note is that the third Manning brother (Cooper) will serve as a "sideline reporter" for the reboot. Presumably he will interview the players before, during and after games.
To say this is a surprise reboot could be the understatement of the year. College Bowl has been pretty much alive in name only in the U.S. for more than a decade (the intercollegiate contests stopped in 2008, and it hasn't aired on TV since the 1987 National Tournament, with Dick Cavett hosting for Disney). As we talked about back when College Bowl ended its campus program, the modern quiz bowl player moved on from the "game show style" of CBI (with shorter, easier questions, variable value bonuses, etc.) to the more academic, challenging fare of NAQT and ACF. Today's current college and high school players -- those who play regularly in NAQT, ACF and various invitational tourneys -- will likely reject this reboot.
But there is an audience who know little if anything about "elite" quiz bowl but who enjoy J!, The Chase, and similar hard quizzes. They have faint knowledge of College Bowl, both the TV show and campus program, if they have any knowledge of it all. NBC should definitely promote the fact that the Manning family will be faces of this revival, but there should also be a strong emphasis of College Bowl 2020 essentially being "J! for teams."
I am curious how this show will recruit teams to represent the 14 colleges and universities. Most colleges and universities are currently virtual only due to COVID and, even if they were on campus, the campus program of in-school auditions and regional tournaments to determine the national field no longer exist. Richard Reid (who owns the College Bowl Company) knows that if the show reaches out to schools with elite quiz bowl teams, the players will likely turn down the opportunity flat. You will probably have to go a different direction to find students from such schools,
And while we can joke about a team from Omaha being in the field, I've seen a few old quiz bowl friends of mine make a prediction on at least one team in the tournament. College Bowl still runs a national tournament for HBCUs called the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (believe it aired at least once in the 90s on BET with singer Clint Holmes as moderator). During the "campus program" era, College Bowl reportedly discouraged HBCU squads from competing in quiz bowl tournaments and events that were outside the Honda Campus element (No College Bowl regionals/nationals, no open invitationals, etc.). Times have changed, and hopefully attitudes have as well. It would not surprise me to see at least one team in this revival being from an HBCU.
JD
