NEED TO KNOW
Jack Whitehall has revealed which celebrity contestant on Nation’s Dumbest surprised him most
Whitehall hosts FOX’s new game show, which follows celebrities competing to prove their intelligence
Nation’s Dumbest airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX
Jack Whitehall ran into a few surprises while hosting FOX’s latest game show, Nation’s Dumbest.
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the Nation’s Dumbest press day in Los Angeles on July 9, the host, 38, revealed who out of the 12 celebrity contestants caught him off guard the most.
“I think a fair few of them surprised me, Steve-O, in particular,” Whitehall says. “I was very aware of his canon of work and had seen a lot of his stunts on Jackass, stapling his testicles and bungee jumping in a porter-loo, and you know, life decisions that felt quite foolish, I would say.”
Jack Whitehall and Steve-O on ‘Nation’s Dumbest’
Credit: Shane Mahood/ FOX
On the first day of filming, Whitehall recalled, Steve-O was 30 minutes late to set because production had to cover up a tattoo of a penis on the stuntman’s forehead. “So I would say that set the bar quite low in terms of assumptions about his levels of intelligence,” Whitehall says, jokingly. “The bar was almost subterranean.”
He adds, “So yes, he did exceed my very low levels of expectation for his intelligence.”
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Many of the other contestants PEOPLE spoke with at the Nation’s Dumbest press day shared the same answer, with Jon Heder calling the Jackass star “formidable.”
“When I saw Steve-O walk in the room, but he probably didn’t walk in the room, he probably cartwheeled into the room, I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s brain is fried from all the stuff he’s been through and everything,'” Heder says, jokingly. “[But] he was formidable. [It] was like, ‘Oh, dude, Steve-O, he is gonna be a force to reckon with.'”
Along with Steve-O and Heder, the celebrity contestants also include Hilaria Baldwin, Carmen Electra, Anthony Michael Hall, Chase Hudson, Ice-T, Elle King, Matt Leinart, Dr. Drew Pinsky, JoJo Siwa and Andrew Yang.
In Nation’s Dumbest, celebrities “return to summer school for classroom-inspired trivia, physical challenges and unexpected tests of knowledge,” per an official logline. “The smartest celebrity graduates each episode, leaving the remaining contestants one step closer to earning the title no one wants: The Nation’s Dumbest.”
Cast of FOX’s ‘Nation’s Dumbest’
Credit: Shane Mahood/ FOX
As a fan of reality TV, Whitehall’s latest gig is like a dream. The comedian says he was drawn to hosting the FOX show because of its “fun format” and the twist it puts on the traditional game show.
“It felt very anarchic and mischievous and I liked that it had this variety of physical games and logic tests and a quiz element,” Whitehall says. “And most importantly, that I get to host it and not actually have to answer any of these questions because I think I would be flailing around for my life if I were an actual contestant on this show.”
Nation’s Dumbest airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX and streams the next day on Hulu.
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