Take Five With Chris Hardwick

06.02.2017

While many in this country seek to build walls, NBC's The Wall aims to break them down by giving people the chance to win upwards of $12 million every night. Executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, the hit game show returns for its second season on June 22.

Daily Brief had a chance to sit down with The Wall's host extraordinaire Chris Hardwick to talk about the mutant superpowers of game shows, his boundless future ventures, and the need for empathy.

Daily Brief: What game shows did you grow up watching and love the most?

Hardwick: I grew up during a substantial wave of daytime and nighttime game shows. But Price is Right is still a classic. The original Match Game. The original Hollywood Squares where Paul Lynde was the center square. That was incredible. There was The Joker's Wild, Press Your Luck. I bought some of the layout drawings from the animated whammys. There was obviously Jeopardy! Every game show has a little bit different mutant power. You like Jeopardy! because you're like, these people's brains are throbbing, they're so smart. Match Game was look how drunk everyone is. Hollywood Squares was I can't believe they're saying that on network TV and getting away with it. I always loved game shows.

Why do you think we continue to turn to game shows? They're never going away.

Even if they wane for a bit, they always come back. There's a certain competitive element of human nature where we like to see how something plays out. Or if you're watching someone answering trivia you're either comparing yourself or you're watching them and going, I would never know the answer to that or what would I do in that situation? There's a certain bit of empathetic watching.

I remember when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire came around… and the suspense. You like an emotional arc, and being on the edge of your seat as to whether or not someone else is going to walk away with a bunch of money… Our show takes it a step further by actually making you care about these people, because they're good people. You really really want them to win. You feel what they're feeling as much as you can.

Obviously, it's more stressful for those that have the money on the line, but how do the emotional swings affect you?

I feel it in the pit of my stomach. We spend hours together when we're shooting and I get to know them. I want them to win. As much as I can feel something without being the person who is actually affected, I feel for them when they don't win. It's a kick to the gut when they don't. I'm not directly responsible, but I feel like as their guide I bear some of the responsibility. What's in my pocket? Take whatever I have. Here are the keys to my car.

I remember after the first couple that didn't win, I had a real emotional conversation with showrunner Andrew Glassman. He's a very empathetic person too, and I just said, this sucks. Is there anything we can do? He said, it sucks, but you have to understand that everyone knows what the risks are, they know they can potentially leave with no money. For the viewing audience, if they understand it's possible to lose, that makes them appreciate the wins so much more. People would get bored if they knew every week someone's going to win. Knowing it's possible someone may not win takes you on that emotional ride.

You mentioned every game show has a mutant superpower. For The Wall, is it empathy?

It's empathy and humanity. Most game shows are one-dimensional. If you're watching Jeopardy! you know this man is a systems analyst, this person is a history teacher, and that's all you get.

There's a certain irony to a show called The Wall being human and empathetic. Empathy is what the world is missing.

Social media is sapping a lot of our empathy because it's essentially an emotional shouting match most of the time and there's no empathy or understanding. This is counterprogramming to that and it's refreshing for people. The fact the show is doing so well means people need it.

Do you watch game tape on other hosts?

I have a tremendous appreciation for anyone who can host a show well. Even if I'm not necessarily trying to steal tricks from them. Alex Trebek is a machine. Drew Carey is great on Price is Right, because he's Drew, but he's still running the show, and it's fun.

We shoot one floor up from Price is Right, and I always bring people down and spin their wheel. It's really fun.

Everyone had a different way they approached it. It's not an easy thing to do. You have to host a game show to go, oh, okay, I get why this is hard. Because you're doing ten things at once. There's the mechanics of the show, so you traffic cop that, but you also should be yourself, and if there's any other elements of the game you have to factor that in, and still have to do it in time and in structure, and do your ins and outs at commercial without it feeling too business-y.

I don't know if I could watch my earliest hosting. I was just shouting a lot. I didn't know what else to do.

Juggling ten things at once sounds like your life in general. You just launched Fish Ladder, a new production company, and have The Talking with Chris Hardwick spinoff. What are you hoping to accomplish with the new ventures?

Scripted programming. Which I haven't ventured into before. But I hired a great development executive, Mike Clements. We have a first-look deal under AMC Studios [AMC, BBC America, IFC, SundanceTV] that allows us a lot of different ways to go. I also co-own an animation company so I want to bring animation into the stuff that we're doing.

Everything's a bit different. For the Talking spinoff, AMC said, what would Talking Dead look like if it wasn't about The Walking Dead? I was like, I don't know if that's a good idea. No seriously, what would you do with the other Sundays? Well, I've been doing this podcast for a long time so I'd probably skin it like Talking Dead, but spiritually make it like the podcast, and then if we had a live audience I would bring an element of a Comic-Con panel and mash these things up. I haven't seen that on television before, so let's try that. But it's a lot…last night I was doing Talking Dead, today, tomorrow and Wednesday I'm doing @midnight, I'm doing a podcast right after this, Thursday we're doing two episodes of the Talking show and then The Wall starts up next week…

How much coffee do you drink?

I don't drink coffee at all. I wish I could. It makes me vibrate too hard.

What are you planning on the social media front for Talking with Chris Hardwick?

It's essentially a moderated chat. I'm the gateway to the live audience there and this panel of people they recognize. It's a slightly different thing than @midnight or anything else. You see some of it on Talking Dead. It's pulling in stuff that people want to know about the guest who we have on that they wouldn't normally find out about, and moderating a chat with not just the audience there but with all of social media.

On television, everything is short attention span-y. Celebrities go on a talk show and they're on for six minutes and they answer the same four to five questions because they have to promote the thing they're there for. It's not the fault of the hosts. Late night is really strong with amazing hosts at the moment, but it's what they have to talk about. So I said, let's counter-program that, and let it breathe like a podcast. Maybe no one wants that, but let's try it.

Is there anything else you'd like to try?

I have to get back out on the road and put together another standup special.

The music and festival ID10T [June 24-25 in Silicon Valley] was something I always wanted to do. That's something to try. I never know if any of this stuff is going to work, but that's not a reason to not try!

Don't hesitate to try The Wall when the game show returns to NBC Thursday June 22 at 9/8c.

[All images courtesy of NBC]