Yet another podcast featuring big Hollywood names has been announced. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes are teaming up for a new interview podcast called “Smartless,” and The Hollywood Reporter has the first details.
The twist of Smartless is that, for each episode, one host will know who the interview subject is, while the other two will only find out in that moment. The idea is that this will prompt a more genuine back-and-forth because two of the guests can’t do any prep work.
Smartless’ first announced guests include Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seth Rogen, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Awkwafina, and Dax Shepard.
Bateman, Arnett, and Hayes have been friends for a long time, but this is the first time they’re working together on a project. “Jason and I were casually talking about podcasts and how fun it would be to do one and we wanted to include a third person so we went through my Rolodex and wouldn’t you know, Arnett was first,” Hayes said in a statement.
The idea for the podcast came out of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Why not ask a bunch of smart and talented people questions about the world instead of constantly bothering our spouses,” Hayes said. “We really just wanted to create an atmosphere where we can be authentically us in our humor and thirst for understanding and invite the audience to laugh and learn along with us.”
The first episode of Smartless premieres on July 20 wherever you can find podcasts.
There are more podcasts than anyone has time to listen to these days, and they just keep coming. In addition to Smartless, a new podcast focused on The Office was announced this week. Brian Baumgartner–who played Kevin on the show–is the host of the series that will feature interviews with Steve Carrell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Angela Kinsey, Jenna Fischer, and many more.