The original Jackass made an enormous impact on popular culture but the original TV show, the one that debuted on MTV in 2000 and introduced the world to Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and the rest of the crew of daredevil pranksters, only lasted for three seasons and 25 episodes. (MTV did re-air those 25 episodes endlessly, which might explain why it feels like it was on for a lot longer.) The content restrictions of basic cable — not to mention a fear of getting sued by kids who got injured attempting the stunts they saw on TV — quickly pushed Jackass to movies, where it remained ever since. Four feature films have been released to date, most recently Jackass Forever, which was a solid hit in theaters and on streaming earlier this year.
But that word streaming has changed Hollywood in recent years; every studio wants their own marquee franchises on their own streaming platforms. And Jackass is one of Paramount’s core franchises — and so now it is going back to television on Paramount+. On the company’s quarterly earnings call today, the studio announced that thanks to the success of Jackass Forever, which was the series’ first effort in a dozen years, they are making a new Jackass TV series.
There’s no word yet on whether the entire cast will appear on the show, but one of the nice parts of Jackass Forever is that it introduced a whole new crew of stars, including Zach Holmes, Eric Manaka, Jasper Dolphin, Rachel Wolfson, and Sean “Poopies McInerney.” You could conceivably mix and match different groups of old and new Jackasses to keep things fresh (or to precent anyone from getting too injured).
The only cause for concern: Jackass Forever was, shall we say, very free with its depictions of nudity, bodily fluids, and other edgy content that would still be a problem on basic cable. Will Paramount+ let the Jackasses do what they want? As long as they can go full Jackass, this should be a good show.
Sign up for a trial of Paramount+ here.
