Long before he became Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce was a Super Bowl champion and one of the best tight ends in the National Football League. (Kelce plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the Super Bowl last month.) Now, it seems, he may be looking to expand his career repertoire and add game show host to his resume, as he’s reportedly in talks to host a reboot of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? for Amazon Prime Video.
Kelce and his brother, Jason, have already found success on Prime with their hit documentary, Kelce, released in 2023. And this would actually not be Kelce’s first foray into television, lest we forget his 2016 E! reality dating show, Catching Kelce, filmed many moons before he met and fell in love with the most famous woman in the world. He’s even been a host before, taking on hosting duties for Saturday Night Live one year ago, in March 2023.
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was originally hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and premiered in 2007 on Fox. The show ran until 2011 until its cancellation; Foxworthy returned in 2015 to host one more season. In 2019, Nickelodeon revived the show with host John Cena, but it only lasted for a single season. Now, according to Variety, sources close to the project say that the reboot would use celebrities in place of where the original series had children contestants (which is actually a genius idea).
Last year, Kelce disclosed that he’s interested in pursuing a career in Hollywood once he retires from the NFL, whenever that may be. He has produced two films—his first project, My Dead Friend Zoe, premiered at SXSW earlier this month, and King Pleasure, an upcoming documentary about Jean-Michel Basquiat, begins production this summer.
Of his experience hosting Saturday Night Live, Kelce said “It was an experience that was like nothing else that I’ve ever gone through.” He added “I just can’t thank them enough for giving me that opportunity, because I didn’t know I was going to enjoy scripted comedy, or that entire entertainment world as much as I did, until I was on a set and going through the week of preparation and stuff like that.”
Of his future in the entertainment industry, Kelce said he’s “definitely interested [in pursuing more acting projects],” and added “but that’s a whole new craft that I feel like I really got to lock in and focus on [before I do].”
Hopefully the deal can work out, as Page Six reports that “despite Kelce’s interest in the program, producers are hesitant to extend an offer over questions of his availability due to his contract with the Chiefs running until 2025.” Kelce is already a familiar face on television, and not just for NFL fans or Swifties. He starred in over 375 nationwide commercials in the 2023 NFL season which, according to The Wall Street Journal, is more than any other athlete or celebrity. In addition to even that, the brothers Kelce host a No. 1 podcast, “New Heights,” where Kelce sometimes drops tidbits about his personal life with Swift.
