Travis Kelce landed his first TV presenting role: hosting the game show Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?
The American football star – who has become more famous since he started dating Taylor Swift last year – played for the Kansas City Chiefs and helped them win the Super Bowl for a second straight year in February.
Their high-profile relationship was credited bringing the NFL a legion of new fansand creating buzz every time they are seen together, including their recent romantic evening at the Coachella music festival.
The Prime Video production is a spin-off of the popular American game show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, first broadcast on Fox in 2007 and hosted by American comedian Jeff Foxworthy.
It was later revived by Nickelodeon in 2019, led by action star John Cena, and also spawned a board game and a book.
In the UK, the series was remade as Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old?, and was directed by Noel Edmonds, and later by Dick and Dom.
In the new spinoff of Kelce’s show, an adult contestant will be asked 11 basic-level questions that they can ask a class of various celebrities for help.
The final question is from the Year 6 syllabus and is worth $100,000 (£80,000). Only one celebrity is allowed to discuss the answer to the last question with the contestant.
Filming for the 20-episode series has already been completed.
“The ultimate class clown”
Kelce said in a statement that he grew up watching game shows and was “excited to follow in the footsteps of so many television icons.”
He added: “The original series is a big hit, so bringing a new format to the screen with everyone’s favorite celebrities will definitely be entertaining.
“I’m just happy to be on the host side of the equation here and excited to see how these famous faces keep up.”
Original series co-creator Barry Poznick called Kelce the “ultimate class clown,” adding, “replacing the kids with celebrities gives us more laughs and surprises, like a roast, as the contestants cheat their famous classmates.
Earlier this month, Kelce graduated from the University of Cincinnati, 12 years after completing his studies.
He completed his remaining credit hours in 2022 to earn his degree in interdisciplinary studies, according to The Cincinnati Inquirer.
Producer, podcaster and festival founder
Are you smarter than a celebrity? isn’t Kelce’s first TV gig. He starred in his own dating competition show in 2016 for E! called Catching Kelce and hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live last year.
He is also producer of the upcoming documentary King Pleasure, about American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Outside of television, he co-hosts a podcast New Heights with his brother, American football star Jason Kelce, discussing popular culture as well as football.
He also launched his own music festival, Kelce Jam, which will take place for the second year later this month, with headliners including Lil Wayne and Diplo.