Michael Strahan Admits He Would Be An 'Awful' Player on 'The $100,000 Pyramid'
The $100,000 Pyramid returns with all new episodes on Sunday night and Good Morning, America’s Michael Strahan will continue on as host.
In the first half hour, the undisputed queen of drag, RuPaul, takes on actress Lauren Lapkus, followed in the back half by former Soprano’s star Steve Schirripa facing off against hilarious comedian Loni Love.
“It’s amazing that the game is about 50 years old,” Strahan tells Parade. “I think America still likes to watch it because it’s a game you can actually watch with your whole family. For one, I think it’s just simple fun, it’s just word play. And you get the chance to watch some of your favorite celebrities team up with their contestants, and at that point no one’s a celebrity. Everybody’s on the same plane. Trying to get people to mind meld and figure out words, it’s just entertaining, and I think we all love fun, simple, entertaining laughter. That’s it.”
After six seasons, Strahan says most of the celebs who play the game are good at it, but then there are those who are really good, A1 players like Loni Love, RuPaul, Cedric the Entertainer, Will Sasso, Amanda Seales, Amanda Kloots, Marcus Lemons and Robert Herjavec. But as for himself, Strahan says he doesn’t have what it takes.
“I’d be awful,” he admits. “I tried it a few times. I hosted the show for the first four years or so and never got in the hot seat, never did any of it. And then my friend was like, ‘We should do it. I want to do it.’ And I did it with her and we completely had a generational issue … I’m going to call it that. The fact was that she was too young to catch some very simple clues. And you can tell, I’m still mad that she didn’t get the easy clues that I was throwing out there. But I’m awful, the pressure. I’m never calm enough to do this show, so I would be awful. You don’t want to be my partner. Don’t be my partner if you want money.”
ABC/Christopher Willard
Strahan’s mother is also trying to get in on the game, asking her son to let her play because she thinks it’s easy and wants to win some of that money.
“I’m like, ‘Mom, it’s not that easy.’ Because [when you’re playing], you’ve got that ticker you can hear, ding, ding, ding, and it’s almost subliminally forcing you to move faster because you hear your time, your seconds ticking.”
Following are some additional interesting tidbits about playing the game that we got from Strahan during our interview:
You don’t need to know pop culture to play this game. The words are generic enough that most Americans know them. Is that part of its attraction?
I think, yeah, but then there’s sometimes you do hit a generational gap, which I always find pretty funny. You’re like, “How don’t you know that, kid?" But I think that’s the fun of it, and teaming up the right people. You see certain people instantly hit it off and you’re going, “Okay, they’re going to be really good.” Sometimes both teams are just getting all of them right and it comes down to the tiebreaker. I love it.
And then you have some teams you look at and you go, “Did anybody study anything before they came out here today?” It’s just the yin and the yang of it, you never know what you’re going to get. And sometimes you’re really surprised, which I know I am, that some of the people are really good. I didn’t think they’d be really good and they’re excellent players who actually won a lot of money for their partners, which is the objective of the whole thing anyway.
ABC/Christopher Willard
Are there celebrities that you would just love to have that you haven’t had yet?
Who would I love to have? We had Wayne Knight and Jason Alexander come on like a little Seinfeld reunion. I would love to do a Friends one. How great would that be? Can you imagine that? Three guys versus the three girls, bam! You pick your partner; I’m not going to tell you. You match yourselves up, I just want you on the show. I think that would be so, so much fun to do. Chances are probably slim that it will ever happen, but never say never.
When the celebrities come on, and I’m assuming that they’ve played at home before they do that, but are they concerned with looking smart? How much pressure is there on them? They’re not just there to have fun. I think they want to win money for their partners.
They want to win money, definitely. Part of it, you come on for fun obviously, but at the end of the day, they’re all competitive and they want to win money for their partner. They want to look smart, and that’s some of the pressure, too. You don’t have to look Jeopardy! smart, but you’ve got to look somewhat smart. But they live up to it, they really do. And they do practice games at home before they get to us. We’ll run them through a few practice games backstage, get their mind going in that certain way that you have to think to play the game, and then they get out there, they meet their partner and we get right to it.
And the funny thing is, right after the first team goes to the winner’s circle, you can see the competitive side come out of the team that didn’t get there. Especially if they came out there thinking it’s just going to be fun and all of a sudden you can see them go, “I want to make it to that winner’s circle.”
And then when the games are over, which I think this is a good testament to staff and everybody who works really hard on the show, is they’ll say, “That’s over? That’s it? I’m done? I want to play again. I want to come back. You’ve got to put me down for next year.” I love hearing that, because it means that we’re all doing our job the right way, and that they’re having a great time and we brought as much fun as they brought to us by being there. It’s a perfect world for me.
Related: GMA's Michael Strahan Says Having Kids Young Taught Him 'the Ultimate Responsibility'
When you first started as the host, did you go back and watch any episodes with Dick Clark? And if so, did you learn anything from him about how to host the show?
I absolutely went back and watched Dick Clark. I don’t have a job on television that I didn’t go back and watch someone who was successful at the exact same job before I took it. If it was Regis, if it was Dick Clark, it was Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, or Jimmy Johnson, I just watch everybody. I believe you learn from the masters, so I definitely did the Dick Clark masterclass. And the thing that I took away from it, in all honesty, was that Dick Clark did not try to be the show.
He didn’t overpower the show with the Dick Clark personality and over theatrics, he let the show be the star and he was the conduit for the show. For Pyramid, that’s what it needed. For some other shows, you’ve got to be a little bit more of the host, you’ve got to be the show, and kind of carry it a little bit more. For me, it was just stay out the way, and that’s what I saw from Dick Clark. He kind of stayed out the way and let the Pyramid do the talking and let the contestants and the celebrities do the talking.
ABC/Christopher Willard
What do you think is the secret to playing the game well? Is there something to study or is there just something about being focused on the set?
I think just having the ability to look at a word and think of about four or five other words for each one in a matter of seconds. And also, if you get something right, to be very calm about it, too. The best players are the calmest players. To the point I’m like, “Are you awake over there?” Because they’re just very calm and, “Okay, yeah.” But they’re rattling off the right answers and giving the most incredible clues because they’re not thinking about time in their head, they’re just being very smooth.
If you’re calm, your partner’s calm. And those who go, “eh, eh, eh, eh,” They make their partner nervous. And then when someone does get something right, the best players don’t go, “Yeah, right!” they just move on to the next word to conserve the time. So, there’s some strategy behind it.
The best players are calm, they know how to think of words that go right around that word, and so many different angles to it so it leads straight to it, and they just really know how to mind meld with their partner.
What I noticed is that sometimes people would give a word clue that takes you in one direction but then their next clue would be something going in a different direction, but that would get the same answer. It’s like building blocks. So, I think what you’re saying is right.
Some people are really, really brilliant. Some people just have this ability when their partner is stuck in one direction, they will go in another direction and lead straight to that word. I think it’s just absolutely brilliant and it’s amazing to see. It’s like psychology. I always loved psychology, so it’s like a psychology lesson watching people play this game and seeing the way different people’s minds really work and how they connect to people.
The $100000 Pyramid returns Sunday, July 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with all new episodes for the second half of season 6.
Next, Michael Strahan Gives Peek Into Celebratory Weekend With Star-Studded Snaps