ABC/Heidi Gutman(NEW YORK) — The third season of ABC’s Match Game continues tonight with a celebrity panel featuring Ellie Kemper, James Van Der Beek and Anthony Anderson.
A reboot of the game show that first premiered in 1962, Match Game each week features four contestants who are asked to fill in the blanks of humorous sentences in the hopes of winning a $25,000 prize. They score points if their answers match those of the celebrity panelists.
“I’m weirdly not good at it,” Kemper tells ABC Radio. “I’m like, ‘Oh I thought I’d be better at the show.’ But I actually make very few matches, but I try! I give it my all. I think the best solution to that is to make fun of it.”
Van Der Beek’s tactic is simple. “My strategy is to not say the stupidest thing possible,” he says. “I just start there.”
Mostly he’s trying to avoid the wrath of host Alec Baldwin, who’s known to embarrass those who give ridiculous answers.
“I found that yes, Alec — nobody’s precious on the set, least of all him,” Van Der Beek laughs. “So yeah, he’ll definitely come at you or the contestant if you give a really stupid answer.”
Anthony Anderson adds that it’s tough to get inside contestants’ heads and predict their answers.
“What’s crazy, you don’t know these contestants,” he says. “So you’re trying to get into their head, you’re trying to think how they think and, uh, to be honest I don’t think half of ’em are thinking.”
Match Game airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
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