Jeremy Allen White, Star of The Bear, set and filmed in Chicago, joined guest host Tom Papa and official judge and scorekeeper Bill Kurtis of NPR’s weekly news quiz Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! on July 30, 2022 at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago for a segment where “big names play stupid games!”
After spending over 10 years on the critically acclaimed and Emmy Award winning show Shameless, also set and partially filmed in Chicago, White has returned to the small screen in Hulu and FX’s breakout summer hit show The Bear about a classically trained, world renowned chef named Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (White) who takes over his deceased brother’s sandwich shop which was also a family business and all the excitement and drama that comes with it.
During the initial interview before the game, White was told that he has made line cooks sexy and the host claimed that he has never had an Italian beef sandwich, which triggered the audience to react with “boos.” White then went on to explain exactly what goes onto an Italian beef sandwich along with all the options to customize them. White recommends not eating one daily, but weekly would be ok.
The panel joked about how intense the show is and how they were feeling stressed watching it but concede that women are loving the show and finding Carmy to be a sex object. White downplayed it, but admitted that chefs are attractive because they take care of you and Carmy is attractive because of his determination and skill.
White was asked while the rest of America is watching his show, what is he watching? He explained that he has two small children at home, a 1 year old and a 3 year old and at the end of the day, when the children are finally in bed, he and his wife are watching reality TV shows like Below Deck and The Real Housewives.
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Once the initial interview was completed, White was then asked to play the game where he was tasked with answering 3 questions about the bear. Not the hit TV show The Bear, but Paddington Bear. If he answered 2 out of 3 questions correctly, he would win a prize for one of the show’s listeners.
White went through each of the 3 options of the answers of the first question and judged by the audience’s reaction which answer would be correct and guessed the correct answer when he locked in his “final answer.”
The second question was not quite as difficult as the first one, but all three of the multiple choice answers seemed to be equally ridiculous. White managed to pick the correct answer all by himself without the help of the audience.
The third question was about Nicole Kidman, whom White acknowledged that he loved and answered the question correctly without any hesitation. White won the prize for the lucky listener and the panel of hosts congratulated him on the success of The Bear before ending the segment.
You can listen to the entire Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! show right here:
