Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to Return in 2023 with Revamped Animal-Free Show

Chris O'Meara/AP

After a six-year hiatus, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is set to return soon, but with one significant change: no animals.

Showrunners announced on the Today show Wednesday that the famous circus — known for, and often criticized for, its acts with elephants, lions, and tigers — will be returning without animals.

"We will not be touring animals," Juliette Feld Grossman, a producer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, told the outlet.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shut down in 2017 after 146 years, citing the high price of putting on the show, waning popularity, and pressures from animal rights activists.

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"That's the past, and the great thing is that we've had a blank piece of paper to reimagine," producer Kenneth Feld said on Today about the future of the circus show.

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Instead of animals, the family-owned company will put on a revamped Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus with a number of death-defying and awe-inspiring human feats, according to Today. After holding auditions around the world, Grossman said the circus chose 75 talented performers out of the hundreds who auditioned for the new show. The circus is expected to hit the road again in September 2023.

"What we're seeing is a huge demand for people. To be in person and to see things that are real," Grossman said. "I've been part of Ringling my whole life, and now we're excited to make that real for everybody else."

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The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show dates back to the mid-1800s when Phineas Taylor Barnum joined forces with the five Ringling brothers to create the modern circus. They ended the show's legendary run in New York on May 21, 2017.

In the months before the final 2017 circus show, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said the animals in the show would be given "suitable homes" and added that some of the approximately 500 people in the circus would be transferred to the company's other ongoing shows.