Reality Show Featuring Joliet Teacher Debuts Thursday

“The Quest,” an ABC reality series filmed last year in Australia, will make its debut Thursday, featuring a Joliet high school teacher and a Chicago bartender.

Joliet math teacher Patrick Higgins, 41, is one of 12 contestants — known as “Paladins” — who will compete in the series, which blends fantasy and reality, according to ABC.

The contestants will battle it out in a fantasy world known as “Everralm,” Higgins told Suburban Life, adding, “The people of the world, they’re basically under attack from this evil that comes every 1,000 years and they call in these 12 heroes from another world – that’s us – and the goal is to find the one true hero out of all of us.”

According to ABC, the executive producer of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and executive producers of “The Amazing Race” are teaming up to bring viewers “The Quest.”

In addition to Higgins, fellow Illinois resident Katie Smaluk, a 26-year-old bartender from Chicago, is also competing on the 10-episode series.

“The Quest” airs at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 31 on WLS-Channel 7.