Over 500,000 HQ players were treated to a surprise Thursday night, as Jimmy Kimmel stepped in as guest host. It’s a pretty big get for the trivia app, which reached over one million players last week. The app recently debuted on Android, further increasing it’s player pool.
Kimmel stepped in for regular host Scott Rogowski, who has been absent all week. HQ keeps a small roster of guest hosts, including Sharon Carpenter, Casey Jost and Sarah Pribis. EDM DJ Dillon Francis has also popped in for a hosting spot.
Just lost at HQ Trivia because I was too stunned that Jimmy Kimmel was hosting.
The thing is, Kimmel wasn’t your usual HQ host. He wasted very little time getting into the game, asking the first question just seconds into his appearance. Even users on Twitter noticed that Kimmel kept the pace brisk.
When announcing the prize for the night, Kimmel said what we were all thinking. He said that even though the contestants were playing for $2,000, it would only be “like four dollars” after all the winners split the prize.
Jimmy Kimmel should always host HQ. And if not, every host should emulate his approach.
There was very little if any humor between questions. It was perfect. Kimmel had the whole thing wrapped up in minutes, and wasn’t too far off on his prediction. Those that correctly answered all 12 questions added a cool $6.39 to their account.
Fortunately for the HQ team, there were no technical difficulties with their big-name host. HQ has been prone to errors as their popularity has exploded, but tonight was smooth sailing.
Kimmel only recently discovered HQ, and tweeted at HQ CEO Rus Yusupov that he was a genius. Yusupov was the one who teased Kimmel’s appearance on his own Twitter.
Who’s dropping in on @hqtrivia tonight? Jimmy Choo? Jimmy Garoppolo? Or….
Yusupov has future plans to bring more guest hosts on as the game grows in popularity. “I think HQ is known for the gameplay,” he told Mashable in December. “The personalities are a big part of that, but on the team, we put a lot of energy into making it a really compelling game experience. That’s in the branding, in the sound design, in the animations, the way the phone vibrates when you’ve got 3 seconds left… You should expect to see more faces.”
Kimmel isn’t the first late-night host to get into HQ, but he’s the first one to host. Jimmy Fallon has been a regular player for a few months now, and uploaded a video to YouTube of him and The Roots playing together last month. Hopefully for Yusupov, maybe now that Kimmel has been a host he’ll be a little more hesitant to tweet when the game inevitably crashes again.
Ugh. My HQ not working. Uhhh..
HQ airs a live trivia show every weekday at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. Eastern. The games on the weekend are at 9 p.m. only, and are typically for a bigger prize. The prizes have grown steadily since launch, with the current daily prize at $2,000. Users can withdraw winnings to their PayPal as soon as their account winnings surpass $20.