When it comes to the best game show hosts of all time, you might immediately think of the late, great Bob Barker, the soon-to-be-retired Pat Sajak or the always-hilarious Steve Harvey. It can take a long time to find the right rhythm and establish a rapport with the contestants. For comedians in that role, especially, it can be tricky to know the appropriate amount of humor to inject into the show.
That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised with Fox’s The 1% Club, which turned out to be a really fun game show, thanks in large part to Patton Oswalt nailing it as the host.
What Is The 1% Club?
Before we get to the Patton Oswalt of it all, let me explain a little about the show itself. The game aims to let players and home viewers alike see how their brains measure up against the rest of America through a series of logic questions — not trivia like Jeopardy!, The Floor, or the seemingly similar 1 Vs. 100 that aired from 2006 to 2008. Theoretically that puts everyone on a level playing field.
The 1% Club starts with 100 contestants, all answering questions of increasing difficulty. If they answer correctly, they move to the next round. If they’re wrong, they’re out, and $1,000 gets added to the prize pot. There are some twists along the way, but in the end, whoever is left standing has the opportunity to take home up to $100,000.
Why I Really Enjoyed Patton Oswalt As A Game Show Host
Patton Oswalt is known for some great performances like voicing Remy in 2007’s Ratatouille, his longtime stint on The King of Queens and hosting assorted awards shows, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that his skills translate well to game shows. He was able to explain the rules clearly — so important in a premiere episode — and then keep the game moving at a good pace.
He joked with the contestants — many of whom came with an interesting job or story — congratulating those who progressed in the game and lightly ribbing some who were eliminated. He established nicknames for people and asked important, hard-hitting questions, like why Ethan the fin swimmer didn’t want to affiliate himself with the mermaid community.
For each question, the contestants had about 25 seconds to answer, which is a lot of basically dead air to fill, so Patton Oswalt was tasked with making a funny (but not distracting) comment, which I feel he was able to pull off so successfully thanks to his standup comedy experience. For example on one question that pertained to the pronunciation of a word, Oswalt mused:
I can hear you all quietly mumbling this to yourselves. That’s what I hear in my head whenever I eat pancakes.
In another particularly amusing segment, the host declared The 1% Club needed a villain, prompting one contestant, Kyle, to raise his hand and say he would spend his winnings on razing a community rec center in order to build a high-rise for the elite. I won’t spoil what happened next, but just know that Patton Oswalt did end up crafting a narrative to counteract that, featuring a hero promising to “bake pans of brownies for orphans and help old women pay their heating bills.”
As a fan of game shows, I will definitely check out The 1% Club again, and it’s also really fun that the home audience can play along via an app. As fun as the logic puzzles are, though, the best game shows need a good host to make it complete, and I think Patton Oswalt is a great choice for the gig. The 1% Club airs at 9 p.m. ET Mondays on Fox and can be streamed the next day with an Amazon Prime subscription.