Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly news radio panel show produced by WBEZ and National Public Radio (NPR) in Chicago, Illinois. On the program, panelists and contestants are quizzed in humorous ways about that week's news. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member stations. The show averages about six million weekly listeners on air and via podcast.[2]
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! premiered in 1996 and was recorded in front of a live audience in the Chase Auditorium beneath Chicago's Chase Tower on Thursday nights.[3] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, episodes were recorded remotely beginning March 2020, largely from panelists' homes, with sound effects added for broadcast.[4] Live audience recordings resumed in August 2021.[5] In June 2022, the show moved to the Studebaker Theater in Chicago's Fine Arts Building.[6][7] Episodes are periodically recorded on tour in venues across the United States.[8]
Wait Wait... listeners also participate by telephoning or sending emails to nominate themselves as contestants, or as of January 9, 2024, followers of the show's official Instagram account can click a link in the bio which will take them to a form to fill out and register to be a contestant.[29] The producers select several listeners for each show and call them to appear on the program, playing various games featuring questions based on the week's news. Prior to October 21, 2017, the usual prize for winning any game was to have Kasell (named "Scorekeeper Emeritus" following his retirement) record a greeting on the contestant's home answering machine or voice mail system; after Kasell's death in 2018, the prize was changed to have a host or panelist of the contestant's choice record a greeting.[30]
Panelists
In addition to the regular panelists listed below, the show also occasionally features one-off guest panelists.
Regular Wait Wait... panelists (l–r) Roy Blount Jr., Amy Dickinson, and Mo Rocca sign autographs following a 2010 taping in New Orleans.
Though there are some deviations from time to time, episodes of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! feature the following format:
Opening tease
As with other NPR programs, Wait Wait offers a one-minute top-of-hour billboard teasing the program that will follow the network's hourly newscast (which traditionally starts at one minute past the hour). In this minute, the host offers a humorous comment on the week's news, mentions the identity of the week's interview guest, and sets up an out-of-context reading by the announcer of a quote or game title from the episode.
Who's Bill This Time?
The contestant is asked to identify the speaker or explain the context of three quotations from that week's major news stories as read by the announcer (usually Bill Kurtis). Each answer is followed by a humorous discussion of the story by the host and the panelists. Two correct answers constitute a win for the contestant. Prior to Kasell's retirement, the segment was known as "Who's Carl This Time?" and he read the quotations. Whenever Kurtis is absent, his first name is replaced by that of the person filling in for him in the game's name.
Panel questions
In two separate segments each week, the host asks the panelists questions regarding less serious stories in the week's news, awarding them one point for each correct answer. The questions are phrased similarly to those featured on The Match Game or Hollywood Squares to allow the panelists to offer a comedic answer in addition to their real guess as well as a hint from the host if needed. The answer is often followed by a discussion of the story.
Bluff the Listener
Each panelist reads an unusual story, all sharing a common theme. Only one of the three stories is genuine; the contestant wins the prize by choosing it. A sound bite from a person connected to the genuine story is played to reveal whether the contestant's guess is correct. Regardless of the outcome, the panelist whose story is chosen scores one point.
A celebrity guest calls in (or occasionally appears onstage) to be interviewed by the host and the panelists as well as take a three-question multiple-choice quiz. In Wait Wait's early years, "Not My Job" guests were mainly pulled from NPR's roster of personalities and reporters; the pool of guests later expanded to include guests of greater celebrity. As the segment's title suggests, the guests are quizzed on topics that are not normally associated with their field of work. For example, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked questions on the history of Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine,[34] while author Salman Rushdie was asked about the history of Pez candy.[35][36] Often, the subject matter of the quizzes serve as an oblique yet comic juxtaposition to the guests' fields of work, such as when Mad Men creator/producer Matthew Weiner was quizzed on ways people try to cheer others up ("Glad Men") in a March 2015 appearance.[37]
Listener Limerick Challenge
Kurtis (or the announcer) reads three limericks connected to unusual news stories, leaving out the last word or phrase of each. The contestant wins the prize by correctly completing any two of them. The limericks are written by Philipp Goedicke.[38]
Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank
In the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank, each panelist has to answer as many questions as they can in 60 seconds with each correct answer earning the panelist 2 points. At the end there is a question whose answer gets an expanded clarification by Peter or whomever is guest hosting; this question usually deals with an especially odd or obscure news story from the week.
Television
In 2008, National Public Radio reached an agreement with CBS Entertainment to create a television pilot of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me![39] Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell would be in the pilot, and Doug Berman would be the executive producer.[40]
On November 16, 2011, BBC America announced that the show would make its television debut with a "2011 Year in Review" special airing on December 23, to be retransmitted by NPR stations on the 24th and 25th. The taping included two American panelists—Wait Wait regulars Paula Poundstone and Alonzo Bodden—and British newcomer Nick Hancock.[41] In December 2018, NBCUniversal announced it was developing a television version of Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me![42]
Live cinema
On May 2, 2013, an episode was performed at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and was streamed live via satellite as a Fathom Events presentation to hundreds of cinema theaters throughout the United States and Canada.[43] The show included host Peter Sagal, announcer Carl Kasell, and panelists Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone, and Tom Bodett. Celebrity guest Steve Martin won in the Not My Job segment.[8]
Awards
Peter Sagal (third from left) and the crew of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me at the 67th Annual Peabody Awards
Carl Ray Kasell was an American radio personality. He was a newscaster for National Public Radio, and later was the official judge and scorekeeper of the weekly news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! until his retirement in 2014.
Peter Daniel Sagal is an American humorist, writer, and host of the National Public Radio game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and the PBS special Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.
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