‘The Quest’ preview: Learn about ABC’s (potentially excellent) new show

Since Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time has been almost a doldrum spot for new programming this summer, we’ve put a lot of stock on “The Quest.” This is a show with ties to “Lord of the Rings” and “The Amazing Race” from a production standpoint, and that’s quite a pedigree to live up first and foremost.

Then, just add to that one of the most creative premises for a reality show that we’ve seen in some time. This is basically the most ambitious LARP ever. You’ve placed reality contestants into a world that has already been constructed, and this means real actors and a story. The twist is that these contestants remain unscripted, and they have to complete missions and adventures in order to progress further in the story. Only the strong will survive.

Thanks to the sort of fantasy element of this, we feel like the show is probably one of the nerdiest and coolest ideas that we’ve ever seen. There are some similarities in a way here to another ABC summer reality show in “Whodunnit,” which put real people into a somewhat-scripted world with a butler and various housekeepers in a manor where contestants were routinely killed off. This is even more ambitious, and the good news is that most reviews so far are positive.

The reality competition genre desperately needs a new hit, given that most of the standbys at this point are all shows that have been around for at least five years. The CBS big three of “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race,” and “Big Brother” are all over a decade old, and ABC’s “The Bachelor” is the same.

What do you want to see on “The Quest” when the show premieres? Share in the comments now.