THE FLOOR: Anthony Carbone Dishes on Season 2’s Changes and Big Final Showdown

THE FLOOR wraps up its biggest season yet on Wednesday, December 18, as the final nine players compete for the chance to take home $250,000.

Here, showrunner Anthony Carbone talks with Give Me My Remote about the changes the team made to the Rob Lowe-hosted show in its sophomore season, what viewers don’t see, and the final season 2 showdown.

There were a number of changes made in season 2—additional contestants, new ways for clues to be delivered, etc. What was your biggest priority going into this season?
I guess our biggest priority, [having] the benefit of knowing that the first season was a success, was category variety. Like, how do you keep that world fresh? And, thankfully, because of the success of season 1, I think a lot of brands and things saw how family-friendly it was, how accessible it was, how positive it was. We got a lot of access to brands and things that we wouldn’t have in season 1. 

For example, this season we had Disney characters. And season 1, [it would have been,] “Who are you?” And [without seeing the show] they’ll charge us exponentially, because every photo we use, there’s a cost associated. And so a lot of places played ball to give us cost-effective means of utilizing their brands. So I thought that was super important. 

And also we always want to make sure…season 1 is always fun on any show because you just never know. No one knows anything, right? We don’t know anything. The contestants don’t know anything. So walking into it, it’s really interesting to watch how they play the game without that knowledge. We knew that doing season 2, season 3, that contestants were going to watch the show and come in with preconceived notions. So the idea was, “How do we change the game? Still keep the game that everyone loves, but change it in ways that at least adds certain wrinkles so people that come in thinking they know the game have it a little upended in that way?”

With some categories now having the option to have audio clues, how does that impact if and when they might get reused in the future? 
Inevitably, every season is 100 categories. If you watch JEOPARDY, the categories, while they’re not exactly the same, they’re echoes of each other. So we definitely are going to look in future seasons…how do we repurpose certain categories? You always are going to have science categories in some way; you don’t want to always be movies and pop culture. Movies are easy. You can do classic films. You can do black and white films. You can do kids. There’s so many silos for that. But when it comes to reusing categories, absolutely want to figure out ways to be creative, ways of taking what we’ve done in the past and making it interesting again.

The contestants seem to be forming crazy bonds while they’re waiting their turn on the floor. As a producer, what is the balance in showing that element versus the actual gameplay?
I keep on trying to convince Fox to make BENEATH THE FLOOR—you know, behind the scenes, all these people. 

I mean, look, these contestants, they are sitting next to each other on this section of the floor for days and days and hours and hours and hours. So they definitely form bonds. [From] season 1, we had a couple form that is still together and it’s really cute. And then season 2, I believe there’s a couple formed as well. So people date, people probably hook up; they don’t tell me. [Laughs.] But also beyond that, there’s this generational thing, right? Like, we have Mena and David. There’s people who just bond and become friends—become deep friends, and they have reunions, they get tattoos. [Laughs.]  So it’s been really cool to see. 

I wish we could show more of it; there is no time for it. But they study together. They do all these things in their downtime and just become close friends. And it’s really cute to see. 

I think it’s what I love about the show: Fundamentally, it’s a very positive experience for everyone. They have a great time, win or lose. They get to do this show. It’s really neat and interesting. It’s kind of fun to watch, even if you’re not playing—what translates on TV, translates when you’re shooting it. It’s just kind of tense to watch two people duel when you’re on the floor. So I think everyone just has a good time. And I wish we could show more. Maybe we will one day.

In all seriousness, has there actually ever been any serious conversations with Fox about having a digital component showing more of those contestants who aren’t playing?
Listen, we’ve talked about it like, but it’s been such a whirlwind even just making the show. Season 3 will air next year [premiering post-SUPER BOWL], but it hasn’t even been a year since season 1 [debuted]. So we’re kind of trying to get our feet on the ground. 

But, I mean, who knows? Maybe in the future we’ll be able to have a little docu team that can do behind-the-scenes [footage]; maybe you just do one special or something like that. It would be great. I think a lot of people would be interested in just seeing how the sausage is made in certain elements of the show. Especially seeing how the contestants prep for their categories, how they go in and out of that room. And a lot of the game is played there in certain ways, right? A lot of contestants front, right? They’re like, “I’m super smart and always studying,” to scare other people so they don’t pick them on the floor. And that’s like an element that we can’t obviously show but the game is always on. So, you know, players are always playing, no matter where they’re at.

The time boost was added in season 2. How did that impact gameplay, from what you observed? 
Yeah, it was interesting. Time boost is something that has been [used] in other regions and areas, so that had been used before. It had been stress-tested in some way, shape or form, so we could look at it and see what it had done in other countries. What we found is that it added a level; we always wanted to make sure that contestants have a reason to continue to play. So what the time boost does is make players play more aggressively, because there is a world that, particularly if you have your own expert category…say I come in and I’m a physics expert, and I get that time boost, and then sit back down on that floor with that time boost, with my expert category, you’re formidable. People are going to be wary of taking you on. So it could be the difference between you surviving from getting taken out in the middle, or surviving to the end game. 

And I think a lot of contestants started to see that as it progressed. It is only five seconds, which isn’t a ton of time; it’s a free pass, basically, [or] pass and a half. But what I found is every person [who] used it just felt confident. And that is the thing: Because they’re seeing their time tick [away], as you watch that time tick, it just takes you out; like people just lose their brain. And so having that extra five seconds actually is more psychological than actually having five extra seconds.

Speaking of timing, some of these answers are multisyllables. When you’re figuring out the categories, what is the balance you’re trying to strike so one contestant doesn’t get, say, “photosynthesis” and their opponent gets “air”? 
Well, it’s hard. It’s a difficult balance because we try to be as equitable as possible. You just don’t know when that category is going to play, how it’s going to play, who’s going to get what question, etc. 

So the way we do it is we have a set amount, per category, of answers, and then we try to stack them in a way that we, in our heads, are like, okay, like, let’s try to balance it out. So there’s not too many of this. The inherent problem is, though, if someone just passed [on a question]…you can’t go like, easy, easy, easy, easy, hard, hard, easy, easy, because it because then this person passes, and now they get to the hard one, and now they’re back to the easy. And the pattern is broken. So you can only just make best guesses as trying to be as balanced as possible, and that’s it. You just go, “Okay, let’s try our best to do so.” But we do go through every category, which is, again, a lot, and then start stacking them in a way where [we say], “This one’s a little finicky, so let’s put this on the bottom so maybe it won’t come into play. And this one’s harder.” And we’ll just mix and match them that way.

We’ve also seen contestants mispronounce answers, too, and occasionally start to panic over that. What is your internal rule for when you accept things not pronounced correctly or when it’s a shade of grey?
It’s a little bit of fuzzy math, but we try our best to have the correct pronunciation to a degree. 

Basically, the way it works is there is a human on a button with headphones and a list who is just listening to what is being said between these two contestants. And there’s a person behind them who is looking at images while they’re looking at words. And, basically, it’s almost like a dual verification system, where if someone hears a word and it’s clear, they hit the button. If it’s a little less clear, that other person may verify, and then the other person will tap their back, basically be like, yes or no. So it’s kind of almost simultaneous. 

I liken it to a launch in the missiles in a sub—two keys have to turn simultaneously. Again, we try our best as we go through to be like, “Okay, this is a weird word. What will we accept?” So we have on a list: “This is the word, but also accept this, but do not accept this.” So it’s a lot of information that they try their best to prep for, to play through. When the category is selected, they huddle up real quick and they go through it again: “Okay, remember this, don’t forget this, this word’s weird,” and then you go from there.

Fox’s official logline teases the season 2 finale will come down to a best-of-three duel for the final two contestants. What led to that decision?
Well, walking into the format season 1, we always knew that the end game…because it was originally a Dutch format, their end game, literally, was someone who had never played versus someone who had won 99 pieces of the floor. And his name was Taco, it was amazing. 

And so even watching season 1, we were unsure if the end game feels as meaty as it should. And we had discussed [in season 1], “Do we do it best of three? What are we going to do?” And because we were trying [things out in] season 1, we’re like, “Let’s just try it [the way it was originally done with a winner-takes-all game]. Let’s see how it lands.” 

[In season 2,] we just felt like we wanted to have a more impactful end game. Just these two people, formidable, head-to-head, best of three, that tension. And so, to us, just because the show worked and it’s fun, we don’t want to rest on the laurels of, well, we gotta just run it back. You want to always try to make it better. Look at its flaws—anytime you do a season 1 of anything…you’re like, “What can we improve?” And so that’s why we’re looking at the end game and being like, “How can we make it better?” And I think it makes it just a much more…It’s a fun duel. It’s fun to watch two people duel over that, and it’s just much more tense. And it makes the winner a little more meaningful, a little more deserving, than in the prior iteration.

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• Fox Renews THE FLOOR

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