Celebrity Deathmatch is a claymation parody television show that pits celebrities against each other in a wrestling ring, almost always ending in the loser's gruesome death. It is known for its excessive amount of blood used in every match and exaggerated physical injuries (e.g., one person pulls off a participant's foot, living through decapitations, impalements, etc.).

The series was created by Eric Fogel. It aired on MTV from May 14, 1998 to October 20, 2002, and lasted for a 75 episode run. There was one special that didn't contribute to the final episode total, entitled Celebrity Deathmatch Hits Germany, which aired on June 21, 2001. Professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin gave voice to his animated form as the guest commentator. Early in 2003, a movie was announced by MTV to be in the making, but the project was canceled by the end of that very same year.

In 2005, MTV2 announced the revival of the show as part of their Sic 'Em Friday programming block. Originally set to return in November 2005, the premiere was pushed back to June 10, 2006 as part of a new Sic'emation block with two other animated shows, Where My Dogs At and The Adventures of Chico and Guapo. The show's fifth season was produced by Cuppa Coffee Studios and the premiere drew over 2.5 million viewers becoming MTV2's highest rated season premiere ever.

Celebrity Deathmatch started as a short that featured serial killer Charles Manson and shock rocker Marilyn Manson fighting to the death. Deathmatch was brought back in 1998 for MTV's Super Bowl XXXII halftime special, which became the most highly rated special in the history of MTV. Just three months later, Celebrity Deathmatch had entered MTV's main lineup. The show was popular enough for show creator Eric Fogel to be named one of the most creative people in the TV industry by Entertainment Weekly.

During the next four seasons, Celebrity Deathmatch became more popular in other countries and gained viewers from all over the world, but four seasons and 75 episodes later, MTV decided to cancel the show. According to Eric Fogel, MTV thought that Deathmatch was becoming too expensive and too violent for the network, and that its ratings did not justify keeping the show on the air.In 2002, the show was canceled.

In 2006, due to popular demand, the show was revived in MTV2.

Guest commentators

Nick Diamond and Johnny Gomez are always the CDM commentators of each fight, but in some occasions some guest celebrity commentators are brought to help commentate with Nick and Johnny depending the occasion, these guest commenttors are:

* Stone Cold Steve Austin. (He guest commentates several times through out the series)
* Jack Nicholson
* Dr. Ruth Westheimer
* Andrés Cantor
* Ben Affleck
* Matt Damon
* Mills Lane
* Stacey Cornbred
* The Undertaker
* Howard Cosell
* Julius Caesar
* Mick Foley
* Lucy Lawless
* David Letterman
* John Tesh
* John Edward
* Albert Einstein
* Tally Wong

Guest referees

Mills Lane is the official referee of Celebrity Deathmatch, but on some occasions, there have been guest referees to take Mills Lane's place:

* Johnny Carson, in the fight between David Letterman and Jay Leno.
* Woody Allen, in the fight between Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino; winds up winning the match by riping out Quentin's ribcage.
* Jimi Hendrix, in the fight between Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, which turns out to be a dream.
* Howard Stern, in the fight between Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra; In the end he winds up crushing Carmen into a wall.
* Chuck Norris, in the fight between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan; is kicked in half by Van Damme at the beginning of the fight who thinks Chuck is the guy he's supposed to fight.
* Marlon Brando, in the fight between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
* Ronald Reagan, in the fight between Boy George and Don Johnson; ends up thinking Johnson is assaulting a woman (Boy Georgre) and thus kills him.
* Fidel Castro, in the fight between Antonio Banderas and Cheech Marin; ends up being killed accidentally by Banderas
* Carson Daly, in the fight between Eminem and Kid Rock; gets his guts torn out by Joe C
* Steven Van Zandt, in the fight between Bruce Springsteen and James Gandolfini; is ripped in half by the two combatants.
* George Lucas, in the fight between Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson where he gets caught in a garbage disposal and is crushed.


Source : www.wikipedia.org