Season two of Wait, What Happened?, a trivia game show hosted by Frank Nicotero that streams on Hearst Television’s Very Local app, debuts March 13. The first six of the 10 episodes are set in Cincinnati, while the remaining four are set in New Orleans.
Season one saw Nicotero in Orlando and Pittsburgh.
Nicotero quizzes people on the street about the news, including some pretty out-there stories. Correct answers build up a jackpot. He said the Cincinnati shows have some real pop. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Nicotero said Cincy was a five-hour drive, and he performed frequently at the Cincy comedy club Funny Bone.
“I’ve always loved Cincinnati,” he said.
Wait, What Happened? shot both in Cincy and across the river and border in Kentucky.
“These are our best shows,” Nicotero said. “We had the best contestants. We had great shots. They were just the funniest people we had, even more than the first season.”
Finding contestants for season two was easier, Nicotero said, because many of them had watched season one, and knew how the show works. “People knew what to expect and had a lot more fun,” Nicotero said. “And I was a lot looser.”
One of his looser moments saw Nicotero, after asking a contestant a question about goats and their eating habits, proceed to crawl over to a plant and, goat-style, gobble some leaves. “I probably should’ve gotten that app where you can make sure a plant is not poisonous,” he said.
Wait, What Happened? visits markets where Hearst Television owns a station. For season one, in Orlando and Pittsburgh, there is WESH and WTAE, respectively. In season two, there’s WLWT Cincinnati and WDSU New Orleans.
Station staffers help the Wait, What Happened? producers find the best locations to interview people on the street. The stations might also have Nicotero on their air to talk up the new season, and share what he found in their market. “We’re happy to be there in their towns,” Nicotero said.
The other Very Local originals, including Boston Rob Does Beantown, Maddy & Dixie Take Sactown and Plate It, Pittsburgh, take place in Hearst TV markets, too.
Man on the Street
Nicotero is well familiar with the man-on-the-street motif. He hosted Street Smarts, a syndicated show that ran from 2000 to 2005. He also hosted Pontoon Payday on CMT, where unsuspecting contestants are placed on a boat and asked questions, and a wrong answer sees them tossed overboard.
Nicotero considers David Letterman an influence. He mentioned Letterman’s Friday field pieces, on both Late Show and its NBC precursor, Late Night, where he would find humor at Taco Bell or a hot dog stand or the souvenir shop below the Ed Sullivan Theater. “Those were the things I couldn’t wait to tape on my VCR,” he said.
Jay Leno’s “JayWalking” bits come to mind as well, but Nicotero said those often left the person on the street looking foolish. That’s not the case on Wait, What Happened?, he said.
Nicotero loves the man-on-the-street concept. “I’ve spent my life on the street…that doesn’t sound good. I’ve done 5,000 interviews. I did a show for TruTV [It Only Hurts When I Laugh] that was on the street,” he said. “It’s become my brand or my hook, and I’m all for it.”
