ABC has announced that Miracle Workers, a new "aspirational" reality series that will feature an elite team of medical professionals that will use revolutionary medical treatments to help a single patient with a serious medical condition, will premiere on Monday, March 6 at 10PM ET/PT.
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First disclosed last winter and announced as a midseason replacement series when ABC unveiled its 2005-2006 schedule in May 2005, Miracle Workers will replace The Bachelor: Paris (which will air its finale on February 27) and air in the time period for four weeks.
Miracle Workers is being produced by Renegade 83 Entertainment, best known for being the folks behind the not quite so "aspirational" syndicated Blind Date series, and Dreamworks Television, the television arm of the Hollywood studio founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
According to a February 2005 New York Times report, Miracle Workers originated with Renegade, which later took the idea to DreamWorks, where as a result of Spielberg, Geffen and Katzenberg's history of making significant donations to Los Angeles-area hospitals, the studio was able to connect the show's producers with contacts in the medical community.
Miracle Workers will mark Dreamworks Television's second entry into the reality TV arena. Its first, last winter's The Contender, proved to be a mixed bag. Although co-produced with reality TV uber-producer Mark Burnett and critically-acclaimed, The Contender -- the most expensive first year reality show ever produced -- proved to be a ratings disappointment for NBC, which declined to renew it for a second season. ESPN later picked up the series for itself, and a second The Contender edition is scheduled to premiere this spring.