Travis Kelce has teased what to expect from his highly anticipated hosting debut.
Kelce, 34, will host the upcoming game show Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, the title of which was exclusively revealed by Us Weekly on April 3. The Kansas City Chiefs star said he was inspired to join the project because of his longtime admiration of the genre.
“I grew up loving game shows, and I’m excited to be following in the footsteps of so many TV icons by hosting my very first one with Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” Kelce said in a statement on Tuesday, April 16. “The original show is a great success, so to be bringing a new format with everyone’s favorite celebrities to the screen, will definitely be entertaining.”
While’s Kelce’s show will air on Prime Video, Jeff Foxworthy hosted the original version, titled Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, on Fox for four seasons from 2007 to 2009. The show was later made for syndication and rebooted for a Nickelodeon version hosted by John Cena, which ran for one season in 2019.
Kelce added, “I’m just happy to be on the hosting side of the equation here and excited to see how these famous faces keep up.”
According to Prime Video, Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? will find contestants attempting to answer “11 grade-school-level questions with the help of a classroom full of celebrities.”
If they make it all the way to the end and answer the final question correctly, they go home with $100,000. The participating celebrities have not yet been announced.
In the original version of the show, the celebrities were replaced by actual fifth-grade students attempting to help adult contestants answer elementary-level questions.
“After producing more than 3,000 episodes of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? globally, we wanted to come up with a new, loud twist on the format,” the show’s cocreator said in a statement. “Replacing the kids with celebrities gives us more laughs and surprises, like a roast, as contestants cheat off their famous classmates. And now, with the ultimate class clown, Travis Kelce, hosting, viewers should expect the unexpected!”
A source exclusively told Us Weekly that the deal to host the show was signed before Kelce’s public image blew up in the wake of his relationship with Taylor Swift, but he would still “honor the contract.”
The source added that “several test episodes” would be shot so that the show “doesn’t embarrass him.”
A premiere date for Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity? has not been announced.
