Summer hit picked up for second season

Get ready for another summer of Big Balls and people falling into mud: ABC has picked up "Wipeout" for a second season.

The show, which has been a surprise hit this summer, features 24 people competing for a $50,000 prize by running through an extreme obstacle course. Most of them don't make it, and the spectacular falling and flailing of the contestants are a large part of the appeal.

The pickup comes as no surprise. "Wipeout," hosted by John Anderson and John Henson with Jill Wagner, has averaged 10.2 million viewers a week since its premiere in June, making it the second most-watched show of the summer (trailing only "America's Got Talent"). Its 3.8 rating among adults 18-49 is also No. 2 for the summer (behind "Hell's Kitchen"), and it's No. 1 among men 18-49.

ABC has ordered 16 episodes for season two, which will most likely air next summer. At last month's TCA press tour, network head Stephen McPherson said he'd "love to have a summer asset" a la "America's Got Talent" and " So You Think You Can Dance."

McPherson wouldn't go so far as to guarantee that "Wipeout" would only be a summer show, but he did say he'd like to keep the show there. "We'll have to see how the schedule lays out this year and where it goes," he told the critics. "But I think we all have to try to resist the temptation to just burn things out."