David Spade to Host Entrepreneur Game Show ‘Snake Oil’ at Fox With EP Will Arnett
Fox has ordered a new game show hosted by David Spade and executive produced by Will Arnett. Snake Oil will debut in the 2023-24 season.
If the game show’s title intrigued you, you’re not alone. The participating entrepreneurs will also be hoping to deliver some intrigue, although some of them will be acting in bad faith.
Snake Oil is an all-new original format in which “contestants are pitched unique products by convincing entrepreneurs — some of whom are showcasing real business ventures, while the others are ‘Snake Oil Salesmen’ whose products are fake,” Fox describes. “With the help of guest celebrity advisors, contestants must determine which products are real and which are a sham, for a chance to win life-changing money.”
The game description continues: “In each round of Snake Oil, contestants choose a pair of entrepreneurs and learn about their extremely unique (and often bizarre) products through visuals, a custom-made infomercial exclusively produced for Snake Oil, and by quizzing the business representative themselves. With the help of their celebrity advisors, the contestants must then decide who is selling an authentic product and who is hawking a sham. Will they make the right choice or be duped by snake oil?!”
The Saturday Night Live alum is looking forward to bringing his talents to the Snake Oil stage, though the premise gave him pause. “When FOX asked me to host their new show, I was flattered,” Spade said in a statement on April 18. “But then they told me it was about a shady snake oil salesman, and I was a little less flattered to be the guy that immediately comes to mind.”
“As someone who spends way too much time online shopping and specializes in buying random products I may never use, Snake Oil really speaks to me,” Allison Wallach, President of Unscripted Programming, FOX Entertainment, said. “David Spade’s signature brand of irreverent comedy and Will Arnett’s ingenuity, combined with the most bizarre consumer products ever devised, creates an incredibly entertaining guessing game that embodies everything Snake Oil is all about.”
Snake Oil is the latest addition to Arnett’s game show resume. The Arrested Development alum currently hosts Fox’s hit series LEGO Masters.
The show is produced by FOX Alternative Entertainment and Electric Avenue. Arnett, Marc Forman, and Neal Konstantini serve as executive producers, and Konstantini serves as showrunner. Spade is a producer.
Snake Oil, Series Premiere, 2023, Fox