Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Who the Bleep is That?’ on Fox, a Guess-the-Celeb Game Show Hosted by Jeff Dye

The newest game show to mildly challenge our pop-cultural knowledge is Who the Bleep is That?, a TMZ-affiliated production debuting on a fistful of Fox affiliates in the U.S. Comedian and The Masked Singer panelist Jeff Dye hosts this guess-the-celeb contest that’s so simple, it’d better be funny lest it lose us quick. Now let’s see what promise the first episode holds. 

WHO THE BLEEP IS THAT?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A quick glimpse of the stage set, l-r: Dye, a big screen, three contestants and a general feeling that several, if not many, expenses were spared.

The Gist: The core premise, according to Dye: “Who you know could win you thousands of dollars.” Just to clarify, “know” doesn’t mean know know, as in, hey, me ‘n’ Axl hang out and watch The Last of Us every Sunday, but as in “recognize.” And the potential to win $5k means bulldogging it through three preliminary rounds and surviving a lightning round. 

The prelims are your basic buzz-in rounds, with correct answers earning points and wrong ones getting their scores docked. Round 1: Name the celeb as their blurry and/or pixelated photo slowly comes into focus, with the selected “buzzword” on the screen offering a hint as to who it is. (Example: “body” for Megan Thee Stallion, or “tough” for Danny Trejo.) Round 2: Guess which celeb made this stupid-ass tweet. Round 3: Name the celeb as we slowly zoom out on their headshot from when they were a lot younger than they are now. 

The contestants whupped ass in the first round, which seems too easy. They struggled more in the second, because unless you actually remember any tweet that isn’t the original covfefe tweet, it requires a lot more guesswork. And the third lands between the two in terms of difficulty – our trio of participants failed to recognize a shot of William Shatner from his late teen years (not judging, because I didn’t guess that one either). In between, contestant introductions consisted of sharing either their favorite celeb (OMG I LUV TAYLOR SWIFT) or a story about a celeb run-in (OMG JAY LENO ALMOST RAN ME OVER WITH HIS TESLA ONCE).

For the lightning round, contestants must answer simple yes/no questions; get 10 right in 60 seconds, and you’re buying yourself a couple dozen eggs with that $5k. This time, the question was, “Are they a nepo baby?”, and Dye cycled through names like Donald Glover (nope) and Ben Stiller (yep). Did our finalist win enough money to put a down payment on the big package of Twizzlers? NO SPOILERS YOU GUYS. And does all this seem a little too easy? Yeah, kinda.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Who the Bleep is That? is not to be confused with Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? But it is a lot like Jeopardy! for people who still watch Entertainment Tonight. (Or TMZ Live, since the game show shares the brand.)

Our Take: What with inflation and all, I’m not sure what the average going rate of a game-show grand prize is these days, but $5k seems pretty low-stakes. But I guess it makes sense, since Who the Bleep is That? doesn’t present a particularly hardy challenge to its participants, unless they exist in a pop-culture void as yet unpenetrated by the visages of Miley Cyrus or John David Washington. Speaking as someone who watches a lot of movies and a fair amount of TV, I cruised through the whole shebang like an icebreaker ship through the cube tray in your freezer. So it all comes down to hitting that buzzer quick – which I believe on this game show is a button on a smartphone. 

Considering the relatively unchallenging tests of knowledge here, what the show needs is a quick ‘n’ witty riffmeister general. And that’s Dye, who, at least in this pilot, delivers one dud of a non-zinger after another. Example: “I would pay top dollar to watch Gary Busey make and eat spaghetti. Top dollar. That guy is wild.” His improv was clumsy and ill-timed, with the occasional bit of dead space inhibiting what should be a more upbeat, quick-tempo production. If the premise and gameplay is going to be this stripped-down, Who the Bleep is That? needs to be consistently funny, with a bit of a sharp edge. It’s not quite there yet, though.

Sex and Skin: None. Just a missed opportunity to have contestants guess celebs from iso-shots of their pubes. 

Parting Shot: The losing contestants hug the finalist and feign excitement as the credits roll.

Sleeper Star: The person who fired the person who thought putting young Barack Obama in the third round might stump even one person among the 7.8 billion living on planet Earth.

Most Pilot-y Line: Dye: “Weird tweet, huh?”

Our Call: There’s something to be said for the easy and immediate gratification of whaling away at the tee ball equivalent of TV quiz shows – the encyclopedic and rapid-fire Jeopardy! Is sometimes too challenging for taxed brains after a long day of shoveling coal or shuffling spreadsheets or whatever it is you do for a living. Who the Bleep is That? Is enjoyable enough and boasts a decent premise that needs a few tweaks before it’s running on all cylinders, so we shouldn’t quite be ready to give up on it yet. STREAM IT and hope the ship runs tighter an episode or two down the line.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.