Colin Jost is ready for his Jeopardy! era.
The longtime “Weekend Update” anchor—who will host Prime Video’s Jeopardy! spinoff, Pop Culture Jeopardy!, beginning this Wednesday, Dec. 4—says he’s been training for his new gig for quite some time. In a new interview with The Ringer, Jost explained how SNL helped prepare him for the role of game show host.
“One thing [the Jeopardy! team] told me is how when they’ve had guest hosts, they’ve had some that just are not as good at cold reading,” Jost said. “You’re reading 61 clues in a game, then you suddenly have a lot of cold reading that you’re doing. You see everything in advance, but you still never know what order it’s going to pop up in.”
The one thing that really helped Jost prepare? Joke swaps with “Weekend Update” co-anchor Michael Che.
“So weirdly, a thing that prepared me very well for it was the joke swap that we do at SNL, because I’m also cold-reading that, and it’s live,” he added. “I weirdly had confidence from being forced to do that by Michael Che. It gave me confidence: If you don’t want to read a clue, I was at least not going to be in racial jeopardy.”
Jost also revealed that prior to being tapped to host Pop Culture Jeopardy!, he and Che were developing a game show of their own with Jeopardy! executive producer Michael Davis.
“That’s how I met [Davis]—not knowing at all his involvement in [Who Wants to Be a] Millionaire, not knowing that he was doing Jeopardy!,” Jost explained. “Those were my reference points. I wanted a game that had great trivia to it and was a serious trivia game. I didn’t want to ever do a game show that felt gimmicky or too game-based, like physical games or anything.”
So don’t expect Jost to lead a Double Dare revival anytime soon.
Pop Culture Jeopardy! was first announced in May at Prime Video’s upfront presentation. The series—which is part of the streamer’s new “Winning Wednesdays” game show programming block—aims to combine the academic rigor of the original show with the unpredictability and fun of pop culture. It also marks the first time that an iteration of Jeopardy! has been created for a streaming service.
The first three episodes of Pop Culture Jeopardy!, hosted by Colin Jost, will be available to stream on Prime Video on Wednesday, Dec. 4. Three new episodes will drop weekly.
