ABC ANNOUNCES CRASH COURSE

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO CONQUER THE "CRASH COURSE"?

ABC Unleashes a New Automotive Competition Reality Show Featuring Challenging Driving Courses Never Before Seen on Television, Hosted by Orlando Jones and Dan Cortese

This summer ABC fulfills your need for speed and laughs by putting you in the driver's seat of "Crash Course," a one of a kind automotive competition reality series produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions, the producers of "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" and "Hell's Kitchen." Hosts are Orlando Jones ("Drumline," "Biker Boyz") and Dan Cortese ("The Superstars" "Surviving Suburbia"). Production was shot in the automobile capitol of the world, Detroit, Michigan. The program airs Wednesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network, starting AUGUST 26.

Imagine racing fast and furious in the ultimate driving course. Now imagine it with your significant other or mother right beside you giving you directions, all the while seeing flaming ramps up ahead. "Crash Course" will not only put the couples' navigating skills to the test, but will test drive their relationships and patience, as teams work together and summon their greatest driving skills to make it across the finish line. The contestants will be everyday people from all walks of life who have a pre-existing relationship (father and daughter, boyfriend and girlfriend, best friends, etc). Each week, five teams of two will compete against each other, being eliminated one by one as they battle through several challenges before facing the final "Crash Course" at the end of each episode -- the ultimate gravity and logic defying driving test -- for a chance to win the ultimate prize of $50,000.

Teams will be tested individually as well as in group races by such competitions as car bowling, backward drag racing -- with a boat in tow -- and parallel parking the most challenging vehicle ever (as in tank, fire truck, bus). Driving on the road of life is not about the destination but the journey, and for these contestants it'll be a hilarious, nerve wracking and emotional lap to victory. Whether it's driving on an exploding slalom course or bursting through garage doors with no idea what lies on the other side, contestants will have to face speed bumps, falling objects and all manner of extreme driving conditions to conquer the "Crash Course."

The executive producers are Arthur Smith and Kent Weed for A. Smith & Co. Productions ("I Survived a Japanese Game Show," "Hell's Kitchen"), Rick Hurvitz and Bruce Beresford-Redman for Mindcrime.