I reported on who’s seeing upside from this year’s box office wins, covered Hollywood’s creator panic after the success of Backrooms and Obsesssion, followed every beat of Casey Wasserman’s move to sell his agency, and wrote about tax incentive showdowns both globally and within the U.S.
From new formats The Floor and The 1% Club to reboots of classics like Hollywood Squares and Press Your Luck, game shows have one big winner: A-listers looking for a way to make extra cash fast.
“There are a number of forces in the market right now that are leading to a game boom,” says CAA unscripted agent Matt Horowitz. Game shows are generally cost-effective to produce, he adds, often involve known IP that attracts a built-in audience — and have uniquely short shoots that are attractive to busy star hosts.
And, if it seems like there are more star-helmed game shows than ever, it’s because there are. In July alone, new seasons drop of Press Your Luck (host: Elizabeth Banks), The 1% Club (Joel McHale), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Jimmy Kimmel), The Quiz with Balls (Jay Pharoah) and Beat Shazam (Jamie Foxx). These join a slate that includes Password (Keke Palmer), Pop Culture Jeopardy! (Colin Jost), The Floor (Rob Lowe) and Hollywood Squares (Drew Barrymore) as well as legacy shows starring veteran hosts with acting backgrounds like The Price is Right (Drew Carey), Family Feud (Steve Harvey) and Let’s Make a Deal (Wayne Brady). Upcoming entries include NBC’s Wordle based on the New York Times game, set for 2027 with Savannah Guthrie hosting.
Once the province of traditional hosts like Bob Barker, Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek, unscripted reality competition series and game shows are now chasing top stars with the promise of reaching huge new audiences and earning big fees on short shoots — and, as Hollywood talent reckons with scaled back scripted production, it couldn’t come at a better time.
“There’s more opportunity [for talent] in this moment in time than there has been in the last 18 to 24 months,” Horowitz says. “Deciding what game show to host and why is specific to every talent, but as long as the decision is being made authentically I don’t think there’s any downside.”
With so many shows returning this month, I seized the moment to catch up with Horowitz, UTA partner Andrew Lear, WME’s Sara Wortman and veteran talent lawyer PJ Shapiro to suss out which kinds of stars are in demand for game show hosting gigs, why so many actors are answering the call, what these deals look like — and what they pay.
These insiders gave me the lowdown on:
- What big stars make per episode — and why the payday can add up fast
- How compressed shoots make the job so lucrative
- What productions do to lure big stars besides money
- The host formula buyers are looking for today
- Why even talent past their prime of mainstream fame can land gigs
- The narrow exclusivity deals that let stars juggle multiple jobs
- Why reps see little downside for talent and “no real blowback” even when a show fails
- The No. 1 promise of a game-show gig in an era of uncertainty
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