Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Nine years after Jerry Bruckheimer TV made a big entrance in reality TV with The Amazing Race, the company is re-teaming with the Race creators for a new reality competition series, this time on ABC. ABC has handed out a six-episode order to Take the Money and Run (form. Catch Me), which Bruckheimer executive produces with Race creators Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri as well as Jonathan Littman and Belfast-based producer Philip Morrow, on whose format the series is based. Jerry Bruckheimer TV and Van Munster’s Profiles TV are producing with Horizon Alternative TV, the alternative division of Warner Horizon.

In the past decade, Bruckheimer TV has been focused primarily on the scripted side, building a brand of solid crime procedurals which will now cross over to the unscripted side with the new series. As the title suggests, Take the Money and Run is a high-stakes reality series that blends the reality brand of Race chief van Munster with the crime-solving brand of Bruckheimer to answer the question: can you commit the perfect crime and get away away with it?

KristieAnne Reed and Mark Dziak co-executive produce Take the Money and Run, whose development spans the old and new ABC regimes. Back in April, the network’s previous president Steve McPherson quietly ordered a pilot for the project. Now, new president Paul Lee has picked it up to series with a six-episode order, including the pilot. Bruckheimer TV already has a relationship with ABC with the 2003 docu series Profiles From the Front Line, which was also co-produced by Warner Bros. TV, and recent scripted entries The Forgotten and The Whole Truth. Globe-trotting adventure The Amazing Race recently kicked off its 17th season on CBS where he has served as Sunday anchor for the past several years. It won record seven consecutive Emmy Awards for best reality competition series.

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