Review: Flip Side: Hunger Is The Best Salt

I use the phrase “hunger is the best salt” a lot in my daily vernacular. It means that if you’re hungry, any food will taste better. If you’re desperate for something, then anything will be better than nothing at all.

Flip Side is a brand new game show from the minds of Keller/Noll, best known in recent game show history for creating America Says for GSN, which very much felt like the prompt requested was “Family Feud But Different”. Despite the presentation and gameplay feeling like an SNL skit that didn’t need to use Family Feud’s theming as a vehicle for comedy, America Says was a huge success for GSN, and ushered in the channel’s strategy of putting on TV lightweight shows with surface-level gimmicks and easy-to-tape shows. If the format you have can shit out 100 episodes fast, you’re 75% of the way to getting a GSN show of your own.

Well, Keller/Noll is back with their new show Flip Side, uniquely being syndicated as well as airing on GSN, fronted by host Jaleel White (Family Matters, Sonic the Hedgehog). What’s the game show? “Family Feud But Different.” And, if you’re starving for any kind of game show, then Flip Side is for you. If you’re looking for something engaging, interesting and re-watchable, maybe try something else.

Flip Side pits two teams of friends in answering questions posed to various demographics: men over 30, AirBnb hosts, etc etc etc. A question is posed, along with three possible answers, and the teams answer them. That’s pretty much it. There’s a speed round with two possible answers at the end too, and the increasing point values are so overpowering that there’s no reason to tune into the first 15 minutes of the show if you care about the game. (One episode I watched had the team in the lead get an impressive 6 in a row right, with their opponents answering about the same amount in a row wrong, but because they got the last two questions right, they won the game; I know the intention was ‘excitement’ but what came across was ‘this is kinda bullshit’) The bonus round shows one question with 10 answers, and the winning team must find 5 right before they get 3 wrong to win $10,000 in cash.

Jaleel White is a serviceable host—his personality is kind and interesting but the game doesn’t really let it show through so much. That’s probably the biggest flaw in this whole game—there’s absolutely 0 personality. There’s no charm. There’s nothing that I can see in this production that would make me recommend it as appointment television. In fact, the only interesting moment I’ve seen, I’ll post at the end of this article. I don’t even think it’s worth DVRing. If it’s on in the Jiffy Lube while you’re waiting for them to change your oil, and your phone is low on battery, then I’d recommend giving it a watch.