Who is The 1% Club host Joel McHale? Details explored

The 1% Club is back with a second season, bringing some major updates. The show, which was previously streamed on Amazon Prime Video, will now be available exclusively on Fox. The original host, Patton Oswalt, has been replaced by comedian Joel McHale.

Produced by BBC Studios LA and Magnum Media, the first season of The 1% Club was announced by Amazon Prime Video in October 2023, along with a licensing agreement with Fox, to broadcast the series on television. Fox renewed the show for a second season in January 2025, without Prime Video, and announced the premiere episode to be released on June 10, 2025.

Joel McHale, who is an actor, comedian, and host, has taken over the job of hosting this season, where 100 contestants are tested in each episode with their logical reasoning and common sense to solve a series of 15 multiple-choice questions.

The questions subsequently gets tougher and whoever misses the answer gets eliminated. The last person who attempts the question, which only 1% of the population gets right, wins the jackpot amount of $100,000, enough to change the course of their destiny.

More details on The 1% Club's new host, Joel McHale

Joel McHale is known extensively for his hosting duties and comedy roles. He rose to fame by being the writer and host of The Soup from 2004 to 2015 on E! Network. It was a pop culture hit where he made satirical and sarcastic comments on various clips. 

This show earned him enough recognition and praise that helped him land a role as Jeff Winger in the NBC sitcom, Community. It received widespread recognition and led the TV guide to choose him as  Fresh Faces of Fall 2019.

Joel McHale was born in Rome to an American father and a Canadian mother. He earned his bachelor's degree in History from the University of Washington, where he also played championship football. He was enrolled in a training program for acting in the university, where he received his master's degree in Fine Arts.

He is married to an artist, Sarah Williams, and has two sons. He revealed in an interview that he suffers from dyslexia, which he discovered when his two sons were diagnosed with it. 

After graduation, he moved to LA and started off with small roles in movies and shows such as Diagnosis: Murder, CSI: Miami, Will & Grace, Lords of Dogtown, Pushing Daisies, and Spider-Man 2.

Joel acted in the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors and also in a recurring role of Chris on the second season of Santa Clarita Diet, a Netflix horror-comedy series. He also grabbed a role in the DC comic series Stargirl for the role of Sylvester Pemberton, or Starman.

Joel began hosting Crime Scene Kitchen on Fox and then went on to host E! network reality series House of Villains in 2023. He also featured in The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale, his own talk show released on Netflix. However, it was cancelled after 19 episodes, reportedly due to low viewership.

Currently, he is working in the lead role as Frank Shaw in the series Animal Control on FOX and as chef David Fields in the Hulu comedy-drama series The Bear on FX.

What does the production have to say about the change?

On this significant development of The 1% Club, Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network, says,

Joel's outstanding comedic timing and hosting charm already make him a standout talent here at FOX, and now -- building on The 1% Club's strong first year on the network -- we're bringing his unrivaled energy, irreverence and charisma to Season Two, we look forward to expanding on our successful relationship with Joel and continuing our partnership with the incredible production teams at BBC Studios and Magnum.

Joel McHale's excitement to host the show is also evident as he says:

I am 1,000,000% excited to be partnering with FOX to host The 1% Club.  I absolutely love the show and love the game play to the 10𝑥 and guarantee my hair, make up, and wardrobe will look great at least 68% of the time.

The executive producers of The 1% Club are Ryan O'Dowd and Krystel Whitney from BBC Studios LA Productions and Dean Nabarro and Andy Auerbach of Magnum Media. 

99% of us are unfortunately not as funny as Joel McHale, which makes him the perfect host for The 1% Club. His unmatched approach to comedy is innately unpredictable and will take audiences on a thrill-ride as they watch him in action with our contestants, striving to put their wits to the test, says Ryan O'Dawd while praising Joel.

The 1% Club was originally released in the UK in 2022, hosted by Lee Mack. Upon its successful execution and critical acclaim, it was produced internationally as well, including the US adaptation, which started on May 23, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video and later on the FOX network.

Stay tuned for more updates.