‘Jet Lag: The Game’ Season 8 Set at Nebula With ‘Challenge Accepted’ Star Michelle Khare as Guest Contestant (EXCLUSIVE)
“Jet Lag: The Game” is refueled for Season 8 and bringing “Challenge Accepted” host Michelle Khare along for the ride.
Streamy winner Khare has joined “Jet Lag” as the guest contestant on the new season of the hit web travel game show, which will be returning to the U.S. for its eighth season after several installments shot abroad in Europe, Japan and New Zealand, playing alongside usual competitors: Sam Denby, Adam Chase and Ben Doyle (the winner of Season 7).
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Filming on Season 8 of “Jet Lag: The Game,” which airs episodes first on indie streamer Nebula and later on YouTube, began Monday.
“I have spent the last month meticulously studying every detail of these three men. I know their max vertical jumps, top moving speeds, and most of all — star signs,” Khare told Variety. “I know that may sound insane, but this is what needs to be done if we want Sam to get the win.”
Khare, whose YouTube series “Challenge Accepted” won Show of the Year at the 2023 Streamy Awards, will be teaming with Denby (chief content officer at “Jet Lag: The Game” streamer Nebula and founder of “Jet Lag” production company Wendover Productions), while Chase and Doyle are paired off again. Denby, Chase and Doyle have all appeared on every previous season of “Jet Lag,” either competing as solo contestants against each other, or with Chase and Doyle working together and Denby bringing in an outside guest as partner.
“She’s pretty much the best-suited guest ever,” Denby said during an interview with Variety last month, prior to Khare’s casting being announced publicly. “And I’m getting texts from her every day about getting on a strategy planning call. She’s in it to win it. I am worried.”
Chase says the “Challenge Accepted” host is “occasionally send threatening text messages to me and Ben,” and Doyle adds: “If Adam and I get trounced next season, don’t be surprised.”
For Seasons 5, 6 and 7, the “Jet Lag” gang took their show outside the U.S., choosing to compete in games in Europe, Japan and New Zealand. Denby says coming back stateside for Season 8 was a result of finding a format that works in the U.S. the same way their “tag” approach works in Europe.
“I think we have some some great new ideas about how to create the situations that make European games so good in the U.S., where we don’t have those high frequency trains and that high density of trains,” Denby said. “We’ve taken an approach of working backwards from the results we really like, the situations that the European train networks create, and trying to craft the rules of game play to try to get that in the U.S.”
Chase, who alongside Doyle has been designing the format and challenges for “Jet Lag” since its first season, said: “Without giving too much away, we’ve been trying to do a format in the vein of this for a while and we have not been able to make it work, and I think we have finally cracked it.”
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