it all boils down to this I am the host
with the challah french toast the
trapped Trebek Scott Rogowski host of HQ
trivia my background is in comedy I
started doing stand-up comedy in college
moved to New York City after college did
the open mic thing for a few years
transitioned to hosting talk shows a
sports talk show and then running late
with Scott região ski for the past six
years about two years ago I made a
youtube video showcasing some fake books
on the subway that went viral in a way
that I had never experienced before I
auditioned for HQ back in April it has
been overwhelmingly positive I can't
even describe the amount of tweets in
the comments and people on the street
stopping me and just the joy of of the
fans of HQ they love to play the game
their offices are shutting down at 3
p.m. classrooms are stopping what
they're doing to play at 3 p.m. 9 p.m.
people are gathering with their family
we saw them Thanksgiving HQ kind of
harkens back to that old method of
watching live television when you
couldn't have you couldn't DVR it I'm
sort of an old soul and you bet your
life with Groucho Marx is probably the
best game show of all time in my opinion
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire of course
was a huge huge phenomenon loved
watching Regis still love Regis Regis
can you believe it before the game
there's a prep session with the producer
and the writers we kind of go through
the quiz the questions of the day I make
my notes to myself of you know wasted
maybe transition from question to
question or throw on a an extra tidbit
here and there I try to throw a few
slices of dried mango down my throat and
some date bars maybe some yerba maté a
get energized my suit is my uniform to
be honest I really wanted to wear a suit
with question marks covering the whole
thing but there was a guy giving out
free money he already beat me to it
shout out Matthew Lesko so we had to
pivot towards the black blazer black tie
the teleprompter has the questions I'm
not that good where I could memorize all
12 questions in there and
but yeah there's a definitely a fair
amount of ad-libbing Jerry oh sherry
baby Shayna is that frankie valli in the
year 2000 thanks pop into my mind when
I'm in there that I don't know where
they come from sometimes and sometimes I
don't know where they're going and
sometimes I wish I didn't say them do I
know most of the answers myself well it
depends on the category I'm good with
geography history sports politics when
it gets into the gaming the video games
the tech those are my weak spots I don't
know how far I would get if I were to
actually play HQ but I like to think I
went at least one or two games the way
the game works is I asked 12 questions
and you have 10 seconds to answer the
question from when I start reading it so
it's not a lot of time obviously for
playing HQ you could very easily have
another device next to you typing in the
answer or Siri where is Suriname located
you know and they could give you the
answer googling is happening I think
it's happening frankly I think it runs
counter to the game you know if it's
really a truly a test of your wits why
would you rely on Google we recommend
that you ask Jeeves because this is such
a new thing that has has grown so
quickly there are going to be growing
pains and we've experienced that with
some of the lag and you know so many
people wanting to play which is
incredible that you have the demand
there obviously the engineers are
working around the clock trying to do
their best there are times when the game
glitches or freezes and I have to sort
of tap dance around that do a little a
little song and dance for the HQ teas
watching at home but you know I'm used
to used to struggling on stage let's put
it that way from my 10 years of doing
stand-up so it actually helps when
there's no one there to heckle it's a
it's a heckle proof environment what HQ
brings is that that idea of FOMO right
if you're not playing the game you're
missing out and yeah I think we're gonna
start seeing other networks other
companies trying to come into the space
maybe competitors to HQ we're already
seeing some of those pop up but could
this move beyond trivia I mean what what
makes this work is that we're giving out
money what
watch a talk show with no stakes if it
was live in the moment
I don't know would they watch a cooking
show the coolest thing that HQ is that
after the games you see that water
cooler effect you know Oh question
before that was savage you know oh man I
completely guessed wrong on that one I
knew if I didn't get in the time you
know it's just a positive joyous
jubilation on the Internet which is so
rare it's usually very sad and angry
place but I think HQ is injecting some
positivity back into the the mix
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