BACK & BETTER THAN EVER

BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER Jay Leno hosts an all-new season of “You Bet Your Life”

By Heather Turk

Viewers tuning in to the second season of “You Bet Your Life” with Jay Leno will discover the remake of the classic 1950s game show hosted by Groucho Marx has undergone some changes.

“We don’t do comedy up front anymore, we get right into the game,” Leno, who previously began each episode with a comedy bit alongside co-host Kevin Eubanks, told nonstoplife. “We also used to have a topic and people would go, ‘Oh, I don’t know anything about Broadway shows.’ So now we say, ‘Broadway shows or famous restaurants?’ That way they choose the topic. There’s a $1,000 bonus question, too, so if they get one question right, then the bonus question is based on that first question. The show just moves quicker, and there’s more interaction with the people. I can walk over to them and give them the cash right away (with COVID restrictions relaxed), and that makes things a bit more intimate.”

Currently airing in syndication, “You Bet Your Life” features two pairs of strangers trying to answer a series of questions to win, as Leno put it, “month-changing money.” Unlike traditional game shows, however,

“You Bet Your Life” reunites Leno with his former “Tonight Show” bandleader, Kevin Eubanks

the focus of the show isn’t so much on the game as it is on the contestants. “The fun thing about this is it’s not a game show,” Leno said. “A game show would be, ‘The capital of Pakistan is what?’ This is a comedy show with a game attached to it. You’re talking to people, interviewing them, finding out their funny story and then, oh by the way, here’s a question for some money. That’s what I love about it.”

Leno prides the show on its diverse contestant pool, which has featured “every interesting, diverse type of personality that you can imagine.” “We’re not making fun of anybody,” he stated. “We had this one guy — the most macholooking guy you could imagine — who was a bodybuilder and I said to him, ‘What do you do?’ ‘Oh, I’m a drag queen.’ And I asked what his name was and he had some silly name like Pretty Polly. It’s just very funny. We don’t pass judgement. Whatever it is, it is.” While Leno credits part of the show’s success with the fact that people generally enjoy watching humans interact with one another, he also keeps politics out of the program, so it doesn’t alienate any viewers. “People want a break from ‘I hate Trump,’ ‘I hate Biden,’ and I think that’s what led to the success of ‘You Bet Your Life,’” Leno concluded. “No one is giving you their opinion. It’s just two people from completely different walks of life having a good time and trying to win some money.” youbetyourlife.com