‘Cash Cab’: Celebrity Guest Gilbert Gottfried ‘Pretty Much Zero Help’ to Contestants, Host Ben Bailey Once Said
Celebrity guests make for exciting additions to game shows but sometimes they just frankly aren’t very good. Case in point: Cash Cab. The game show on wheels has seen a number of high-profile guests including many celebrities from Bravo who are better known as “Bravolebs.” Among others have been model Cindy Crawford and Matthew Perry of Friends.
How does ‘Cash Cab’ work?
For those who don’t make it a habit to watch Cash Cab regularly like us, here’s a refresher on how the game show works. Contestants get in a cab that, unbeknownst to them, is the setting of a game show. Stand-up comedian and licensed cab driver, Ben Bailey, reveals they are actually on a game show and proceeds to fire off general knowledge questions all the way to their destination.
For each question contestants get right, they earn money. If they don’t know an answer, they have the option to use a mobile or a street shout-out. Three wrong answers and contestants lose all their money and Bailey has to kick them out of the cab on the spot.
The game show returned in 2017 with a celebrity guest edition
During its original run, Cash Cab aired on the Discovery Channel. Premiering in 2005, the show ran for 11 seasons before coming to an end in 2012. It won multiple Daytime Emmy Awards and remained a popular game show thanks to reruns.
After a five-year hiatus, the cash cab returned to the streets of New York City. The program returned in 2017 with a new version of the original show featuring help from celebrity guests and a modernized take on shout-outs; passengers now had the option to crowdsource a question Bailey to posed to audiences while on Facebook Live.
The celebrity version debuted in Dec. 2017 after which Bravo decided to revive the original series in 2019, according to Deadline.
Ben Bailey: Gilbert Gottfried ‘didn’t actually give a single answer’
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly in Dec. 2017, Bailey spoke with the publication where else but in the actual cash cab. When asked to name a celebrity guest who had “been the most hopeless” with trivia, the 49-year-old didn’t hold back. He hesitated a little before giving the distinction to a fellow comedian, Gilbert Gottfried.
“There was one celebrity who didn’t actually give a single answer,” Bailey said. “I don’t want to say his name, but I will — it was Gilbert Gottfried. He was hilarious, but he was pretty much zero help.”
Gottfried appeared in a Season 12 episode of the game show where he surprised three high school friends by joining them for a ride in the cash cab. Like Bailey said, while he may not have answered any questions, Gottfried provided some comic relief. Watch the comedian on Cash Cab in the clip below.
Ready for more from the game show on wheels? According to the show’s Instagram bio, Cash Cab will return in 2020 — no exact premiere date has been released — with new episodes. While waiting for the cash cab to hit the road once again, watch reruns on Bravo, the Discovery Channel, and the Game Show Network.
