If your family loves games shows as much as I do, then you’re going to want to tune into ABC on January 5th at 8 PM to watch the brand new game show hosted by Fred Savage and Ricky Gervais – it’s called CHILD SUPPORT, and it’s one of the funniest game shows I’ve seen in a long time! I caught the premier when I was in LA last month for the Star Wars press junket and I literally could not stop laughing!
Photo Credit: ABC/Lisa Rose
Ricky Gervais came up with this amazingly hilarious game show that features adult contestants who rely on the support of a panel of 5 kids, hence, “Child Support”, to answer a series of questions for the chance to win up to 200,000. As they answer each question, the show switches over to Gervais and the panel of children and they are asked the same questions. Their answers are always pretty funny, but the really cool thing is…if the contestant gets the answer wrong, and the children answer correctly, the contestant still qualifies to move to the next round!
In the episode we watched, the kids actually saved the contestant from losing and he won the TOP PRIZE!! I think all of us bloggers in the room were just as excited as the contestant when he won!
Photo Credit: ABC/Eric Liebowitz
We actually got to meet Fred Savage after screening the premier episode and I was just so shocked at how sweet and NORMAL he was…but it was no surprise at how much he loved being the host of Child Support – who would have known that he was such a natural born game show host?
His Thoughts On Being a Game Show Host
I just enjoyed it. I had so much fun. The biggest thing, before we started shooting, I would go out and say hello to the audience and say, I have no idea how I became a game show host. This was not, a goal of mine. My wife or friends afterwards would be like, how was it? What did you learn? What’d you find out? And I learned that I really have this inner game show host… I didn’t even know it was there. I ride all the rollercoaster of emotions. When they win, I’m thrilled and when they don’t, I’m just crushed.
Photo Credit: ABC/Lisa Rose
His Thoughts On Child Support Being a True “Family-Friendly” Game Show
Going into it, I thought it was something I would want to watch with my kids— I wanted to make sure that it was appropriate. That it was not a lot of ‘winky winky’ innuendos and entendres.
As someone who works with kids, I don’t think it’s funny to take advantage of their innocence or naiveté to get comedy. As a parent, I think that innuendo is still treading in kind of inappropriate water, so I wanted to make sure going in that we weren’t getting comedy out of suggestive things that kids shouldn’t be talking about, and Banijay was totally on board. This is definitely a family show and it’s something I want to watch with my kids.
We all went into the premier wondering about the name of the show, because it may carry some negative connotations, so of course we asked Fred Savage what he thought!
His Thoughts On the Name of the Show, “Child Support”
I was like, I don’t know about that. That was the first time I called Ricky. This is not something that people have a very positive association with. Do we want to be the face of child support? He had similar reservations and he had a lot of trust— he’s like, look, there’s no better network who’s looking out for families than ABC and Disney, and they’re not gonna do anything that’s going to be inappropriate or negative or hurtful for kids or any of that stuff.
On Advice from Ricky Gervais…
I haven’t met him actually, but he was really great, I had never done anything like this, so he was good with words of encouragement. Right before we started shooting he said, “Just don’t censor yourself. Just be who you are. If you’re excited, be excited. If you’re upset, be upset. Be unfiltered.”
I won’t lie, the best part of this is…I MET FRED SAVAGE. I met him!!!!! Real life, in the flesh, all of my teenage fantasies come true – you ladies in your late thirties and early forties know what I am talking about. It was a pretty amazing experience to meet him and for him to be as awesome as I hoped he’d be!
Child Support premieres January 5th at 8 pm EST on ABC! Don’t miss it!
Special thanks to Disney and ABC for hosting me in Los Angeles for the #ABCTVEvent. All opinions are my own.
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