‘Full Frontal With Samantha Bee’ Donates Trivia Game App Prize to NAACP (EXCLUSIVE)
By Danielle Turchiano
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” trivia game app launched a new game Sunday that was “intentionally unwinnable” for players, with the prize money instead being donated to the NAACP, Variety has learned exclusively.
The app, “This is Not a Game: The Game,” features trivia games during which players have to answer trivia questions designed to educate them about political topics including the Founding Fathers, GOP history, environmental justice, reproductive rights, LGBTQ heroes and America’s indigenous peoples, and those that correctly answer every question in a round split a pot of money. Sunday’s theme was voter suppression, and at the end of the game, an in-app pop-up notified players that no one would be splitting the $7500 pot.
“Voter suppression is real and is happening when the stakes are way higher than $7500. It makes me furious and I wanted to make people furious with me,” Caroline Schaper, “Full Frontal” digital producer tells Variety.
While some users may be upset that they never had a fair shot at winning this particular game, “Full Frontal” producers want them to consider whether “they should be more upset that certain politicians are promoting a strategy to influence the outcome of elections by preventing entire demographic groups from making it to the polls.”
“This is Not a Game: The Game” launched in October and has already been downloaded by 310,000 people, with players winning more than $80,000. More than 126,000 of these people have signed up for voter registration information and reminders through the app. On Monday there will be two live games, the second of which comes with a $25,000 prize, and on election day, the app will increase the number of live games to help entertain voters who are waiting in long lines at the polls.
In addition to teaching players about democracy, “This Is Not a Game: The Game” encourages voter registration through text notifications, daily videos and in-game challenges.
“As a new American citizen, I voted for the first time in 2016 and based on the outcome, I can only guess I must have done it wrong. But this time around I’m much more prepared because I’ve been playing my own game every day for a month,” said Bee in a statement.
The TBS late night show will also air a bonus episode on Monday, Nov. 5 that covers local political races just ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday the 6th. Then, its usual Wednesday show on the 7th will unpack the results of the elections and include footage taken at the polls.
In addition, as each state’s election results come in Tuesday night, “Full Frontal’s” Facebook page will cut a shape of the corresponding state out of a large United States sheet cake. With each piece that gets cut, more of a message underneath the cake will be revealed.
“We know
Tuesday
is going to be one of those nights where everyone is huddled around their TVs, hanging on every poll closing, desperate to learn whether the world is about to get better or worse. So we wanted to do something sort of celebratory, even if the celebration is just that this thing is over. And yes, if we end up eating our feelings in the process, so be it,” Carol Hartsell, digital managing producer, says. “But we also wanted to give our fans a way to watch along with us so we can carry the emotional load together. We’re going to be reading their comments and responding throughout the night, so no one has to go through this alone.”
“” is executive-produced by Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, Tony Hernandez, Miles Kahn, Alison Camillo and Pat King. The show airs weekly Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on TBS.
