‘Lucky 13’s Unusual Greenlight Model Proves Hostage To Fortune As ABC Nixes Game Show

EXCLUSIVE: Lucky 13, the ABC game show hosted by Shaquille O’Neal and Gina Rodriguez, will not return for a second season after failing to strike it lucky.

The series, created by the team that developed Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and first revealed by Deadline, was more of an acquisition than a traditional greenlight by ABC.

Under the unusual greenlight model, producer Studio 1 pre-funded Lucky 13 in return for a share of ABC’s advertising and product placement sales on the show.

The trouble for Studio 1 was that its Lucky 13 ad revenue projections, which Deadline understands were independently verified, fell well short of reality.

This was despite the show becoming ABC’s most-watched summer series premiere when it launched on the Disney-owned network in July with 2.7M viewers, beating CBS’s Big Brother. Lucky 13’s season finale was also ranked number one in its time period.

Deadline understands that ABC was making positive noises about renewing Lucky 13, but the mood music changed in recent weeks. An ABC spokesperson confirmed that it would not be returning for a second season, but cautioned that ABC, alongside many other broadcast networks, rarely officials cancels unscripted shows, as they can always return in some form or iteration, much like ABC has done with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Studio 1 is now restructuring its business to protect the Lucky 13 intellectual property amid ABC’s decision not to renew the show.

Studio 1 CEO Adrian Woolfe told Deadline, “We are in the process of taking proactive protective steps to restructure the Studio 1 business and to unlock and protect the value of the now-proven Lucky 13 IP.

“Rather than it being a direct commission, the unique commercial model on which the debut series was launched in the U.S. was underpinned by advertising revenues which given well-publicised market conditions regrettably, but unavoidably, fell acutely short of forecasts.”

Lucky 13 tested contestants’ knowledge with 13 true-or-false trivia questions but with a twist: Just how well do they know what they know … and, just as importantly, how well do they know what they don’t know? If they accurately predicted how successfully they’ve answered 13 questions, they took home a $1M cash jackpot.

Woolfe created the show and served as showrunner. Kevin Bacon was an executive producer alongside Mark Wells, Glenn Coomber, Aaron Stone, Alastair Burlingham, Gary Raskin, David Schiff, Scott Henry, and GW Wright.

O’Neal executive produced alongside Colin Smeeton and Michael Parris for his Jersey Legends Productions, while Gina Rodriguez executive produced via her I Can & I Will Productions.