Nickelodeon is celebrating the holidays with a new competition series, Top Elf, premiering Friday, November 29, at 8:00PM (ET/PT). Across five one-hour episodes, seven kid “Elf-testants” with extraordinary building and design skills compete in festive challenges to become Santa’s ‘Top Elf‘ and have their wish lists granted – not for themselves, but for good causes in their hometowns. Top Elf airs Fridays at 8:00PM (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon, with the season finale airing Saturday, December 21, at 8:00PM (ET/PT).
In Top Elf, Santa (Tommy Snider) and Ms. Jingles (Samantha Turret) invite seven civilian “Elf-testants” to the North Pole to test their skills in a series of holiday-themed challenges, from designing their own life-sized gingerbread clubhouses, to reimagining Santa’s sleigh, to creating giant 3-D holiday cards. And of course, building new toys!
Each “Elf-testant” is paired with one of Santa’s elves who help bring their visions to life. Meet the elves: Chip Snuggles (Rudy Martinez), Nog Shimmerhorn (David Magidoff), Ginger O’Tingleton (Jenna Wright), Merry Sparkleberry (Nataliz Jimenez), Tinsel Turtledove (Ashley August), Zippy Twinkles (Davied Morales) and Stretch McDancerpants (Eric Stretch).
The seven skillful “Elf-testants” competing this season are: Aiko from New York; Allison from Walnut, Calif.; Briana from Los Angeles; Cameron from Georgetown, Ky.; Hopper from Highland Park, Texas; Hud from Oxford, Miss.; and Justice from Jamaica, N.Y.
At the end of each episode, “Elf-testants” are judged by Santa, Ms. Jingles and a celebrity guest to decide who is on the “nice” or “naughty” list and one step closer to being named Top Elf. Celebrity guest judges helping Santa and Ms. Jingles find the Top Elf are: Frankie Grande, Amirah Kassem, Peyton List, Alex Wassabi and Pete Wentz.
Top Elf’s original concept was created by Mike Duffy and Tim Duffy of Ugly Brother Studios, who executive produce the series along with Jimmy Fox of Main Event Media, an All3Media America company. Bob Schermerhorn (Project Runway All-Stars, America’s Next Top Model) and Lisa Fletcher (The Titan Games) are executive producers, with Fletcher also serving as the showrunner. Nickelodeon’s Vice Presidents of Unscripted Content Paul J Medford and Mandel Ilagan also serve as executive producers. The series is directed by Michael Pearlman (Chopped, Project Runway All-Stars). Production of Top Elf for Nickelodeon is overseen by Rob Bagshaw, Executive Vice President, Unscripted Content.
About Ugly Brother Studios
Ugly Brother Studios is the Emmy-winning production company founded by twin brothers Mike Duffy and Tim Duffy. Ugly Brother creates and produces premium content themed around comedy, music, food and family including Ron Funches: Giggle Fit, The Funny Dance Show and the multi-Emmy-winning and James Beard Award-nominated Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse, among others.
About All3Media America
All3Media America is the U.S. arm of global independent television, film and digital production group All3Media. With teams in Los Angeles and New York, All3Media America’s portfolio companies are responsible for hits that include the Emmy Award-winning Undercover Boss for CBS, the Emmy Award-winning United Shades of America for CNN, Chrisley Knows Best for USA, 24 Hours to Hell and Back with Gordon Ramsay for FOX, the Emmy Award-winning Cash Cab for Discovery, Worst Cooks in America for Food Network and Betrayed for Investigation Discovery. All3Media’s unique federal structure, a model followed in both the U.S. and U.K., encourages the creative and strategic independence of its growing roster of production companies. Today comprised of 30 global production companies and counting, All3Media is one of the largest production houses in the world. All3Media is owned jointly between Discovery Communications and Liberty Global.
About Main Event Media
Main Event Media, an All3Media America company, is an Emmy-winning production company based in Los Angeles. Founded by producer Jimmy Fox, the company creates content across multiple genres including scripted, documentary, reality and original podcast production. Main Event is known for the multi-time Emmy-winning CNN series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell and Investigation Discovery’s Breaking Homicide. Additional works include the E! drama series The Arrangement, Snapchat’s original series While Black, multiple specials for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, Amazon Prime’s docuseries Inside Jokes, the comedy series Hollywood Darlings for POP Network, Is OJ Innocent: The Missing Evidence for Investigation Discovery, It Was Him: The Many Murders of Ed Edwards for Paramount Network and Make Me a Millionaire Inventor for CNBC. Main Event has been recognized for its work garnering TCA, NAACP and International Documentary Association (IDA) nominations.
