‘The Wall’ Host Chris Hardwick on Show’s 100th Episode & Secret Sauce

The Wall has made the climb to a major milestone. The feel-good game show is about to reach its 100th episode on August 24. Executive produced by LeBron James, the NBC staple sees contestants from all walks of life answer trivia questions for upwards of $12 million on the line. 

Teammates work in tandem with hopes of building the largest cash prize they can. Correct answers bring green balls down the four-story Plinko-like structure to add to the total while incorrect responses bring out the dreaded red ball of doom that brings their potential winnings down. A single drop could be worth $3 million, which only adds to the drama. 

Then it’s a matter of blind trust where one partner stays in isolation behind the wall while the other loved one remains onstage choosing drop zones. Viewers watch  the rollercoaster ride play out seeing if the ultimate cash buyout contract is accepted or the guaranteed contract gets signed. Right there for every moment during the last decade for six seasons and counting has been Chris Hardwick. 

For the Emmy-winning show host, its connection goes beyond the monetary. Players have taken in more than $35 million ion the show. But it’s about the people, the stories, and what that life-changing money means as families have paid off debt, funded adoptions, helped charitable causes, and communities. The upcoming 100th episode features Ellie, a dance teacher from Arkansas, who honored her late grandfather by baking 600 pies and generating more than $20,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She’ll team up with her husband Nick with hopes they serve up some serious money. Ahead of the episode, Hardwick opens up about the show’s longevity and impact. 

THE WALL — “Sydney & Nick” Episode 620 — Pictured: (l-r) Chris Hardwick, family, Sydney & Nick Kramer, family — (Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC)

What does 100 episodes of The Wall mean to you? 

Chris Hardwick: I mean, there’s not really a way to accurately describe how much of a big deal it is to me. I grew up watching game shows, in the waves of game shows in the 70s and 80s. And you just always knew that if a show made it to 100 episodes that, at least in my mind as a kid, it was like an institution. That was a big number, a big round number. Just knowing that we’ve been doing the show for technically 10 years, 100 episodes. It really has a lot of meaning to me as a fan of television and game shows. You know, to have been on a network game show for this long is amazing. There isn’t even a word for me to describe. It’s rare in television. 

You never know how a show’s going to do, and how it’s going to resonate with people until it really airs. Was there a moment that you knew that this show was gonna be special?

It’s great that you made that distinction because a show can be special to you, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the audience agrees with you. I’m just happy that they do, and they have for this long. I knew after the first day of taping. Now we can do three episodes in a day, but obviously the very first day of the first season is when they worked out some camera stuff, and the mechanism of the wall. It was a little bit longer of a shoot day than we would have once we kind of got the show up and running. So we did maybe one or two episodes that day. And by the end of the day, I just felt this kind of elation and excitement. You can look at a show on paper, and you can sort of rationalize. Oh, I see why this is an interesting show. There’s a lot of fun stuff going on, there’s trivia, there’s this four-story wall, there’s these colored balls that fly down the wall. It’s fast-paced. There’s a team element. We  kind of get to know them, and that all looks great on paper. But in the practical production of the show, when I was actually on stage for the first time interacting with people and feeling the emotional weight of the show, and getting to know these people, and just having the feel of it. You can never predict what the feel of a show is going to be. You can only really kind of guess, aesthetically, what it’s going to look like, and how it’s going to play. 

But the feel of it is magic, and I felt that on day one. This show is really magical, and it’s special. Again, I had no idea if anyone was going to agree with me, but that’s how I felt. Even if we had only ever done the first handful of episodes, I still would feel that way. Just the fact that the audience shows up for us, and the nicest people come up to me when they go, “Oh my god, I love The Wall,” or, you know, they say, “What do I recognize you from?” And it used to be The Walking Dead or @midnight, and for the last handful of years, it’s really been The Wall. When I say, “Oh, I do The Wall.” Then people go, “Oh my god, I love that show! I watched it with my parents. We laugh, we cry.” They may talk about how people won this much money or made a certain decision. It really does create some great things. in-person conversation, and that’s the other way that you know that a show is special. When people really want to talk about it, and they have stuff to say about it. It’s just been a really incredible experience.

I think another way is the fact there’s more than 30 international versions. Have you met some of the other hosts, or connected with them? 

Not yet. Our showrunner Andrew Glassman once sent me a supercut of a bunch of intros from the international Wall shows, and it’s amazing. Because it’s really sort of like looking at an alternate universe, right? It kind of looks like ours, but it has this whole other beautiful shape and context to it. It is a great show. It gives a lot of money away to people who deserve it. That is international.

I think that’s one of the connections people have with the show. It’s not just winning the money. It’s the circumstances, what they plan to do with it. Whether it’s retiring or helping a cause or disaster-stricken areas. Do you have any particular one that stays with you? 

This is not hyperbole when I say every show has some sort of a special story to it. Like our 100th episode is Ellie and Nick, and Ellie is a dance teacher in Arkansas, and she wanted to make pies to honor her grandfather. She made 600 pies and raised something in the neighborhood of, like, $20,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We’ve had people who have saved or just help other people’s lives…There are just incredible examples of selflessness and how it inspires us. One person can go out and make a difference. And the fact that we have people on, not only to celebrate them, but also amplify  their causes and the good deeds that they do. They can also inspire other people who might feel like, well, what can I do? I’m just one person. I can tell them about this person who gathered a bunch of clothes in their community, and then donated it. Or helped make a bunch of things for children. They just let people be seen and have conversations with people and listen to them. It’s not just a game show. I feel like The Wall is really a special interest show that showcases the best parts of humanity. 

Do you get follow-ups on social media, like on Instagram from past contestants? Do you follow what some of them have done?

I know our showrunner, Andrew, always follows up with people. I get check-ins from him. He’s like, “Oh, I talked to this couple, and they’re doing great.” Or, “I talked to these siblings, and they’re so happy, and they loved their time on The Wall, and it’s really helped them.” A lot of these people have given so much more to life than necessarily they’ve received, and that this show has had an impact on them, and an everlasting impact on them, is really incredible. With other game shows, you don’t really know what they’re going to do with the money, and that’s kind of how it was. That’s why I think it’s such a great evolution for the medium of game shows because when I was growing up, you really never thought about it. Like if you’re watching The Joker’s Wild or something. You may go, “That guy’s Ted. He works in an accounting department, you don’t ever think, like, “What’s he like? What’s his family like? What’s he doing? What does he do in his off time?” Does he work with any causes? What’s he going to do with the money?” You just assume he is going to win some money, and then you never really hear from him again. For Andrew Glassman to have evolved the game show and really sort of redefined what a game show can be. There’s no question that’s the secret sauce of the show. It’s just the heart of the show. 

I think what’s great nowadays is with social media, people are seeing clips. So people are not necessarily watching the full show all the time, but they’re watching a clip on X or Instagram and getting invested. So I think that’s an added layer. 

I love that. It’s sort of like how you’ll see these magical clips of AGT (America’s Got Talent) surface.  It’s like some incredible performance or something. Social media has really allowed these types of bite-sized moments to draw people in. The show is on every day on the Game Show Network, so people come up and go, “Oh, you know, I’ll watch the show with my mom every day when it airs on the Game Show Network.” So, that’s kind of another thing for me. You get to that magical number of 100. And by that time your show is in syndication, it’s even a daily ritual. Not just a weekly ritual. I’m just thankful that we’re still making new episodes after all this time.

THE WALL — “Mallory & Madison” Episode 610 — Pictured: Chris Hardwick — (Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC)

Is there anything about the filming or production of the show that might surprise someone? 

Just that it takes anywhere from two-and-a-half to three hours to shoot a show. It’s incredible. I always think the wall itself should be on one of those modern marvel shows where they talk about some amazing feat of engineering. The wall is so large. That not every stage can house the set. There’s only a handful of stages that have the height.to basically house a four-story building. The process of shooting a show, there’s a lot of stopping because even just swapping the dollar amounts. Those sort of etched glass dollar amounts that you see that illuminate. They’re taller than people. You obviously get a sense that the wall itself is a grand mechanism. But you just can’t wrap your mind around it fully until you see it in person and you stand at the base of it and look straight up. You get dizzy because it’s so high. The grand scope of it, being able to experience the show live is really fascinating. They do have to edit it down to fit the television format. 

Every episode is incredible to shoot. It really blows me away @Midnight was really a fake game show for entertainment purposes. But it’s really always three people standing at a podium, and I’m the fourth standing at the podium. It’s not this big engineering production. They’re filling in different videos here and there. It’s cutting to different cameras. There’s a lot to capture with The Wall. We have this large open space that we can run around in circles, and so even to capture the show is kind of a feat in terms of game shows. We’re not sitting in one place. There’s not a lot of game shows where people just kind of have the run of the set. I think the shooting of it is probably what would be of interest if you’re already a fan of the show. 

Yeah, a lot of moving parts. 

A lot of moving parts. There are cameras everywhere. They’re on tracks and cranes. Even last season, I was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s a camera, way up in a place I hadn’t even noticed before,” Because they’re just covering this thing from so many different angles, and there’s a camera that goes all the way up and down to follow the ball down the wall. It’s a real production. 

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Uh, lastly, you know, you talked about Ellie and Nick’s story in the 100th episode. What else do you want to tell people about it, tease about it, and then about what, you know, what do you want to say about the rest of the season? And then also, you know, with this being 100 episodes, and what do you kind of see for the future of the show that you would want?

I’m just always grateful when we get to do more. This is honestly a show I would do for the rest of my life. Someday, a very elderly man standing on that Wall set, hosting our thousandth episode. I just think it’s such a feel-good show. It just showcases so many wonderful people that it’s a legitimate joy to do. I would do it for the rest of my life, honestly.

I remember speaking about sitting down with Alex Trebek about his job. He had that connection and was strongly associated with that show. This seems like yours. 

I mean, legend. Absolute legend. Alex was so wonderful and warm and kind. I cherish that conversation. Like, winning Celebrity Jeopardy! is legitimately probably one of the greatest experiences of my life that I keep tucked away in my brain at all times. If I’m having a bad day or something, it’s like, I did get to go on Celebrity Jeopardy!, and I won! Like, that was such a big deal to me. And then years later to be able to sit down with him and reflect and just get to know him a little bit, and spend some time, and just see what a wonderful man he was. One of our finest presenters in the history of entertainment television. I was so honored. It’s an incredible gift, not just to work in our business. I think the most success you can ever ask for is, do you love what you do? I achieved such a tremendous amount of happiness with success just based on how much I appreciate and love what I get to do.

The Wall, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC