Celebrities and game shows go hand in hand. Dating all the way back to the days of Match Game, Hollywood Squares and Steve Harvey’s extremely popular Family Feud (which frequently produces viral videos thanks to wild answers), regular contestants have relied on celebrities to win them cold, hard cash. This has been happening on ABC’s $100,000 Pyramid for years, with GMA co-host Michael Strahan presiding over the contest since 2016. And since then, Strahan has collected a string of recurring celebrity guest hosts that he sincerely enjoys seeing return to the show to play along… as well as the one celebrity guest who is so competitive, they want another chance to come back and do better.
Match Game and Hollywood Squares always capitalized on recurring guests, and contestants enjoyed playing with (or against) all stars like the late Gilbert Gottfried or Charles Nelson Reilly. For $100,000 Pyramid, host Michael Strahan also enjoys seeing the same faces come back, and when he sat down with CinemaBlend to discuss the show’s return for a summer season on ABC, the former NFL player told us:
Oh man, I think Jason Alexander – having Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight (from Seinfeld) on was special. I love Mario Cantone. (He’s) one of my favorites. He’s such a great guy. Rosie O’Donnell is an amazing player. We even – we have some new ones that I think will come back and enjoy themselves even more, because it’s one of those games that once you play it, once you’re kind of like, ‘It’s over already? I wanted to do it again?’ And Lindsey Vonn, I think, got the bug because she feels like she can do better.
You can’t take the competitive blood out of Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn, who undoubtedly got the juices flowing while playing $100,000 Pyramid alongside Michael Strahan (unlike the time she stripped down to promote her healthy living book). And it sounds like, after being told that the game was over, Vonn would have wanted a second chance at success. Even though, as Vonn likely knows, it’s not about her, but rather about the contestants that she’s playing for, and the money that they can win. But when we all tune in to primetime game shows, we do root for specific celebrities, and cheer on contestants who we want to see succeed. It’s part of the fun.
The latest season of $100,000 Pyramid returned to the airwaves on ABC on Sunday, July 10. It airs at 10 pm, and is part of a block of game show programming on the network that includes The Final Straw with comedian Janelle James, the new show Claim to Fame with Kevin and Frankie Jonas, and the latest edition of The Bachelorette. Just, don’t look to host Jesse Palmer’s social media accounts for spoilers, because you won’t find any there!
