Amazon has greenlit a 20-episode season of “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” hosted by Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce.
The spinoff of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” is going to be shown on Amazon’s streaming service and will be produced by MGM Alternative.
“Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” first aired in 2007, featuring contestants tackling 11 grade-school-level questions with the aid of a classroom full of celebrities. If they reach the final question and answer correctly, they win $100,000.
“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 shared in a statement.
“The original show is a great success, so to be bringing a new format with everyone’s favourite celebrities to the screen, will definitely be entertaining. I’m just happy to be on the hosting side of the equation here and excited to see how these famous faces keep up,” he added.
Barry Poznick, the general manager of MGM Alternative and co-creator of the original series, said that after creating over 3,000 episodes of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? worldwide, they aimed to introduce a fresh, more dynamic approach to the format.
By replacing the children with celebrities, they hope to inject more humour and unexpected moments, similar to a roast, as contestants try to peek at their famous classmates’ answers.
Wes Kauble will be the showrunner, and Kauble, along with Mark Burnett, Sean Kelly, and Steve Hughes, will executive produce. Amazon MGM Studios Distribution will handle distribution for the format.
