According to Deadline, the network has locked down White as a celebrity judge, along with NeNe Leakes, whose credits include Broadway’s Cinderella and various reality shows. Anthony Anderson of Black-ish will host the show, and The New York Post reports that a third panelist will likely be named soon.
ABC has To Tell The Truth slated to run for six episodes. Each will feature three contestants who are tasked with convincing the judges that they are the same person with a unique talent, occupation, or achievement. The rub, of course, is that only one of the contestants is giving the straight dope. It’ll be up to the judges to question the contestants and determine who’s being honest and who’s bluffing.
Anderson’s mom, Doris, will join in on the questioning, as well as acting as scorekeeper. And, in an interesting modern day twist, whichever celebrity panelist does the worst job of finding out the truth will be forced to tweet out a lie about themselves.
Fittingly, Leakes took to Twitter to share her (presumably true) excitement over this new venture. Just days after announcing that she’d decided not to return for the eighth season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, she posted an exclamation point-laden tweet stating that she’d start filming To Tell The Truth on July 2.
When one door closes, another door opens!!!! Your girl is returning to primetime network TV… http://t.co/Dx6yQNecyl
— NeNe Leakes (@NeNeLeakes) July 1, 2015
No air date has been announced for To Tell The Truth yet, so we’ll have to wait to see if White — who actually appeared as a panelist on the original version of the show — has an advantage, or if beginner’s luck helps the other panelists.
