ESPN to Air Special PBA Bowling Series in Prime Time this Spring
PBA King of the Hill Powered By AMP Energy® debuts Wednesday night, April 22 at 9 p.m. ET

Wednesday night will be bowling night in America this spring.

The Professional Bowlers Association will be going prime time in a groundbreaking new five-week series to air Wednesday evenings on ESPN beginning April 22, the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour and Strike Ten Entertainment announced today.

The world's best bowlers will face off in the first-ever PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy® at 9 p.m. ET on April 22, April 29, May 6, May 13 and May 20 on ESPN.

In addition, during this five-week timeframe consumers will be encouraged to visit participating bowling centers to participate in the AMP/Dale Earnhardt Jr. promotion for a chance to win exciting prizes.

"We are thrilled to bring high stakes bowling to a prime time audience," said PBA CEO and Commissioner Fred Schreyer. "Working with ESPN and Strike Ten plus our great sponsor AMP Energy®, we will present bowling to fans like they've never seen it before."

The top 10 players in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year points race at the end of this 50th Anniversary season will qualify for the PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy® series, plus one wild card entry. The Player of the Year, likely to be decided the last week of the season at the 66th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open concluding April 5 on ESPN, will be declared the first "King."

Each one-hour King of the Hill show will feature three players. In the first show April 22, the No. 2 finisher in the Player of the Year race will face the No. 3 finisher in a one-game match, with the winner advancing to bowl vs. the King (Player of the Year) in a one-game match. That winner will come back as the King on the following week's show.

The players in the PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy® will be battling for a purse of $100,000. The event will be contested at the Kegel Training Facility in Lake Wales, Florida.

The second show will feature Player of Year points finisher No. 4 vs. No. 5; The third week finds No. 6 vs. No. 7; No. 8 takes on No. 9 on fourth show; and the last week has No. 10 vs. the wildcard. Each show concludes with the winners of those matches advancing to the King of the Hill match to face the reigning King, with that winner coming back to defend the crown the following week.

The PBA Player of the Year points list can be found on pba.com. Currently, Wes Malott leads the point race, followed by Sunday’s H&R Block Tournament of Champions winner Patrick Allen and PBA World Championship winner Norm Duke.