Making a splash
New game show ‘The Quiz With Balls’ is high-stakes trivia fun
Summer fun is about to begin with a brand-new game show that either sends contestants home with cold hard cash or straight into the pool to cool off. “The Quiz With Balls” premieres Tuesday, May 28, on Fox. The family trivia quiz show is hosted by “Saturday Night Live” alum Jay Pharoah, who presents duelling family teams with multiple-choice questions that they must answer correctly if they want to stay dry.
Contestants on “The Quiz With Balls” stand on the edge of a platform overlooking a pool beneath. Behind them is a ramp with a giant yellow ball at the top, waiting to be released once they lock in their answers. Anticipation builds as balls roll toward the contestants, stopping just short of their backs if they’ve chosen the right answer or sending them flying into the water below if they have answered wrong. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be shrunk down to size and placed at the end of the Powerball lottery ramp, “The Quiz With Balls” is for you.
In this high-stakes competition, the two teams face off against each other to get the most correct answers for a chance at the for a whopping $100,000 grand prize. The questions become more challenging as the game goes on and the families bank money for each correct answer. Once the last contestant is left standing high up and dry on the winning team, they are invited to play the final round for a chance to win the grand prize.
“The Quiz With Balls” comes from the mind of Dutch media mogul John de Mol, creator of reality competition mega-hits “The Voice,” “Big Brother” and “Deal or No Deal.” “The Quiz With Balls” quickly became a hit when it aired in the Netherlands last summer, prompting a special set of winterized episodes and interest in international versions of the game show. But, the new American version of the format supersizes the grand prize pot to nearly four times bigger than the original series’ jackpot. Spain is also set to air its own version of the trivia game show this year.
The series’ host, Pharoah, is known for his spot-on impressions from his 2010 to 2016 run as a cast member of NBC’s longrunning sketch comedy staple “Saturday Night Live.” After his “SNL” tenure, Pharoah led the Showtime sitcom “White Famous,” starred in Netflix’s 2021 romantic comedy “Resort to Love” and appeared in the 2022 comedy horror film “The Blackening.”
Pharoah had fun with the game show’s cheeky name in an announcement of the series from Fox, saying, “When I got hit up about hosting an epic faceoff between big brains and even bigger balls, I was like ... ‘I got this,’” playfully clarifying, “then I found out it was a game show series on Fox and thought ... even better!”
“The Quiz With Balls” isn’t the first game show that Pharoah has hosted, though it may be the silliest. Pharoah hosted two seasons of “Nickelodeon’s Unfiltered,” where celebrities hidden behind animated characters slipped clues about their identity to panelists trying to identify them.
Fox Entertainment’s president of unscripted programming, Allison Wallach, praised Pharoah in the series announcement: “No matter the stage or show, Jay’s singular brand of humour and comedic timing elevates everything he does. With him at the helm of ‘The Quiz With Balls,’ viewers of all ages are assured an exciting and hilarious hour of fun playing along with Jay and our family contestants.”
“The Quiz With Balls” joins “Beat Shazam” in Fox’s Tuesday night lineup, with the latter premiering its seventh season before the new game show’s series premiere. Host Jamie Foxx (“The Burial,” 2023) returns to “Beat Shazam” after taking a season off to recover from a medical emergency. DJ Corinne Foxx (“Dollface”) also returns alongside her father this season. Nick Cannon (“The Masked Singer”) was Foxx’s Season 6 fill-in while Kelly Osbourne (“Dancing With the Stars”) stepped in as guest DJ.