ABC to follow Wallenda Times Square stunt

Nik Wallenda crossed the Grand Canyon live on Discovery Channel

US broadcast network ABC is to show the latest highwire stunt by daredevil Nik Wallenda and his sister Lijana live in a two-hour broadcast in June.

Highwire Live In Times Square With Nik Wallenda will air on ABC on Sunday June 23 at 20.00 EST, produced by local indie Dick Clark Productions.

The event will see Nik and Lijana start at opposite ends of a tightrope suspended 25 storeys up over Times Square. They will walk in opposite directions to the other side, passing each other in the middle.

The stunt will be Lijana’s first since she suffered serious injuries in a 30ft fall during rehearsals for an eight-person pyramid stunt in 2017.

The pair represent the seventh generation of the Great Wallendas who trace their roots back over 200 years to the Austro-Hungarian empire. Their great grandfather Karl Wallenda brought the Wallendas to America from Germany to perform with The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Wallenda’s previous televised highwire stunt saw him crossing the Grand Canyon in June 2013, live on Discovery Channel at a time when daredevil live events were fashionable among US factual cablenets.

Prior to that he completed a similar walk over Niagara Falls live on ABC.