‘The Floor’ Host Rob Lowe on Landing Sunday’s Post-Super Bowl Slot: ‘Single Most Valuable Piece of Real Estate in the Media Business’
Rob Lowe is having a big week on Fox. The actor closed out his five-season run as the star of “9-1-1: Lone Star” Monday with a bang of a series finale, and is ending Sunday with the start of a new season hosting competition series “The Floor.”
The latter gig wouldn’t be as notable as the former if it weren’t for the fact the unscripted series, now entering its third season, is debuting in the coveted post-Super Bowl time slot. That aspect has Lowe “off the charts honored and pumped.”
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“It’s unbelievable. I was trying to explain to some friends who aren’t in the business, what would that mean? It’s like, no, no, you don’t understand — this is the single most valuable piece of real estate in the media business,” Lowe told Variety. “And what that means is just another indication of how people have embraced the show. This show is addicting as hell, and when people sample it, they are hooked.”
Created by prolific unscripted producer John de Mol (“Big Brother,” “Deal or No Deal,” “The Voice”), “The Floor” is a competition featuring 100 contestants standing on a massive, interactive LED game floor comprised of 100 squares, each representing a different trivia category. The game begins with the first challenger, selected at random, picking a neighboring opponent to compete against in a trivia quiz based on the opponent’s chosen category. The winner of that faceoff takes over the loser’s square and expands their presence on the floor as the loser exits the game. The contestant who takes over full control of the floor by the end is named victorious.
For Lowe, the fact “The Floor” was picked to take the stage after the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles duke it out in Super Bowl LIX on Fox is “just proof” of how challenging it has become to find a show that will appeal to a wide audience.
“It’s one of those rare shows where 10-year-olds like it, grandparents like it, college kids like it, rural people like it, urban people like it,” Lowe said. “It’s equal opportunity addicting. And finding content everybody enjoys is rarer and rarer and rarer every day. And it is now going to expose it to millions more people, which is really exciting.”
Watch a sneak peek of the upcoming “The Floor” Season 3 premiere in the video below.
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