The two-night premiere of ABC’s new summer series “The Ultimate Surfer” will air on Monday, August 23, and Tuesday, August 24, 2021, at 10pm ET and PT, following all-new episodes of “Bachelor in Paradise.” Former NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer is set to host the surf competition series with sports anchor Erin Coscarelli and the iconic voice of professional surfing Joe Turpel to serve as commentators. 11-time World Surf League (WSL) Champion Kelly Slater is the lead consultant and also serves as a special correspondent.
“The Ultimate Surfer” will gather some of the world’s greatest up-and-coming surfers to train and live together as they battle it out at WSL’s state-of-the-art Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California, powered by Kelly Slater’s human-made wave technology, in the hope of competing amongst the best athletes in the world’s fastest-growing sport. Slater will serve as on-air talent and special correspondent for the show.
The surfers competing for the title of “The Ultimate Surfer” this season include the following:
Alliances and rivalries will be front and center in “The Ultimate Surfer” as men and women compete in individual and team challenges focused on specific surfing disciplines. Weekly eliminations will leave two men and two women as finalists who will vie for the male and female titles of the The Ultimate Surfer and the opportunity to compete on the elite WSL Championship Tour, the pinnacle of professional surfing. Slater’s remarkable, one-of-a-kind, human-made wave—the most even playing field for measuring surf mastery—is at the heart of the series.
“The Ultimate Surfer” is produced by Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group and WSL Studios. Pilgrim CEO and President Craig Piligian, WSL CEO Erik Logan, UFC President Dana White and Faye Stapleton serve as executive producers.
Follow “The Ultimate Surfer” (#TheUltimateSurfer) on Instagram, Twitter and Faceb
Established in 1976, the World Surf League (WSL) is the home of the world’s best surfing.
A global sports, media and entertainment company, the WSL oversees international tours and competitions, a studios division creating over 500+ hours of live and on-demand content, and via affiliate WaveCo, the home of the world’s largest high performance, human-made wave. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, the WSL has regional offices in North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and EMEA.
The WSL annually crowns the men’s and women’s surfing World Champions. The global Tours and Competition division oversees and operates more than 180 global contests each year across the Championship Tour, the development tiers, including the Challenger, Qualifying and Junior Series, as well as longboard and big wave properties.
Launched in 2019, WSL Studios is an independent producer of unscripted television projects, including documentaries and series, which provide unprecedented access to athletes, events, and locations around the world. WSL events and content are distributed on linear television in over 743M+ homes worldwide and across digital and social media platforms around the world, including WorldSurfLeague.com
WaveCo includes the Surf Ranch Lemoore facility and the utilizing and licensing of the Kelly Slater Wave System.
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