Steve Harvey has some words of wisdom for potential game show host Travis Kelce.
“Well, all I can tell Travis Kelce is be careful, because you might not be smarter than a fifth grader,” Harvey, 67, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, March 22, while promoting his project The Steve Harvey Network. “The reason I’ve survived so long on Family Feud is I know I’m not smarter than the contestants. I just wait on you to make your own blunder, and then I capitalize on that.”
Last week, Deadline reported that Kelce, 34, is in talks to host a reboot of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? for Amazon Prime. The original series was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy and featured a group of fifth-graders standing by to aid adult contestants as they answered questions from an elementary school textbook.
“If you’re going to work with kids, though, you got to humble yourself, man,” Harvey advised. “And you got to let ’em win the joke. You got to let them win the joke because if you outshine the kids, you won’t be on TV long.”
Harvey has been the face of Family Feud for the last 15 years. He began hosting the series in 2010 and signed on to helm the celebrity iteration five years later. The legendary game show presenter explained that hosting has been a “humbling experience” for him over the years.
“I think being gracious is key to being a host. You got to make people feel warm and feel welcome,” he told Us. “And at the same time, I’m one of the few hosts on game shows that uses humor constantly. I constantly use humor, and that’s my secret.”
The comedian shared that he didn’t need to copy what other game show hosts were doing in order to be successful. Instead, he used his talents in his favor.
“I just turned Family Feud into a comedy show, which I knew was my skill set,” he admitted. “That’s what enabled me to last that long.”
In addition to his impressive tenure on Family Feud, Harvey has also dabbled in other ventures. Most recently, he teamed up with pal Mark Cuban to launch his own interactive community, The Steve Harvey Network, which features interviews and motivational programming.
“I spent a lot of time sharing the principles and concepts of success with people because I mean, the average person just wants to know how to be successful and how to be happy,” Harvey told Us about the project. “Most people I know want those two things automatically, and I think if they just learned a few simple principles, I think that’s the one thing that could help ’em get in the right direction. And I’ve learned them over the years, and so just sharing them is kind of automatic for me.”
