Joel McHale Is Terrible At Puzzles But Loves Hosting Fox’s The 1% Club

Joel McHale is a popular man at Fox; he hosts Crime Scene Kitchen, stars in scripted comedy Animal Control and is also now the host of game show The 1% Club.

The comedian said that it’s “the greatest job in the world”.

The 1% Club has had a slightly unusual path; it was originally greenlit by Amazon with Fox taking a second window. However, the streamer chose not to be part of season two, which saw Fox premiere it with McHale replacing Patton Oswalt, who hosted the first season.

The show, which is based on a British show, is produced by BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions and Magnum Media. It features 100 contestants competing for the chance to win up to $100,000. Contestants are tested on how their brain works through a series of questions that all have a correct answer but can also lead to a series of wrong answers.

“I am terrible at puzzles, so I think they thought it would be funny to have a host that was dumber than all the contestants, and they really are so much smarter. They would only get 30 seconds [for each puzzle] and I would need a year. If they put me on a desert island and said, solve these puzzles. I couldn’t do it. They’re insane.”

Speaking at Deadline’s Reality TV Summit, he added, “I can’t believe someone is paying me to be on camera and tell jokes. It’s the greatest job in the world.”

He joked that it’s quite hard to remember all 100 of the contestants names. “I can’t keep track of their names or where they are, and then they always send me an edit of here’s how many times you called this one person Carissa.”

An earwig doesn’t seem to help. “I still get it wrong. But it’s really fun to make. Those the people are super smart, so they’re clearly not in the entertainment business,” he added.

McHale is also set to return to his other unscripted show on Fox: Crime Scene Kitchen.

The show is a culinary guessing game, where bakers must decode and decipher what type of dessert was made after surveying small clues like crumbs and food trails. Teams must recreate the tasty treat, attempting to best capture its original form and flavor in order to win a $100,000 grand prize.

It was renewed for a fourth season in November 2024 as its third season was airing, which is quite the gap for a show. But McHale revealed to Deadline that he, chef Curtis Stone and cake artist Yolanda Gampp will start shooting Season 4 later this month. “I can’t wait,” he added.