Travis Kelce is not only a superstar on the gridiron, but also in front of a camera hosting TV—despite hitting some speed bumps along the way.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end is premiering as host this week on the new quiz show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? It will debut on Amazon’s Prime Video on October 16, and sees the three-time Super Bowl winner take the helm of the quiz show based on the hit series Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
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It brings a new twist to the original format, where an adult contestant relies on a classroom of celebrities to help them answer 11 questions on a range of subjects, pulled from the elementary curriculum, all in the hopes of winning a $100,000 prize.
While Kelce has shown off his TV skills before, hosting Saturday Night Live in 2023 and currently appearing in Ryan Murphy’s latest FX series, Grotesquerie, it’s his first time as a show’s marquee star.
Comedian Ron Funches was one of the celebrities to show off his smarts in the TV classroom and appeared in many episodes of the first season, where he got to see Kelce’s hosting skills develop firsthand.
“I got to watch his whole progression and it was really fun to see him come in a little bit unsure, like anyone would be on their first day at a job, especially if it’s so different from your normal job,” Funches told Newsweek.
“You know, he had some hiccups here and there, and you can see how much he did care.”
Funches also said Kelce “really cared about making sure he did the best possible job.”
Kelce also “wanted to contestants to win and wanted everyone to feel happy and enjoy themselves,” according to the comedian.
“There’s a lot of times you meet some people who are way less accomplished than him and they put on this air of like, ‘I’m better than you’ but he has none of that whatsoever,” Funches added of the NFL star.
Other stars to help people win up to $100,000 on the new Prime Video quiz show include Nikki Glaser, Natasha Leggero, Nicole Byer, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Chad Ochocinco, Garcelle Beauvais, Lala Kent, Sophia Stallone and Lilly Singh.
Funches made sure to prepare ahead of appearing on Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity? using his video game skills.
“I read up online, I watched a lot of YouTube videos about different classes, looking at ‘what is taught third grade math?, what are some of the concepts that are being taught at that time?’ I did it to know what to expect with each subject and to see which I wanted to avoid,” he said.
“And then I’m also a big video gamer and I found out that they have a Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? video game, and so I would play that when I went home to see what questions could come my way.”
The first three episodes of Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity? premiere October 16, 2024 on Prime Video.
