‘Generation Gap’: Kelly Ripa Explains Why Seniors Have the Edge in Game Show

This joyful game show hosted by Kelly Ripa returns with family teams made up of one junior and one senior battling over how much — or how little — they know about the other’s generation.

According to Ripa, one age group has an edge: “The seniors really know what’s going on,” she says. “They have a tremendous bandwidth of knowledge from all generations — not just theirs! We have to go to TikTok to try and stump them.”

In Generation Gap Season 2, three family teams compete (up from two), and another change endangers contestants’ cash: If they get zero correct answers in a round, they could lose a portion of their winnings — bad for them but entertaining for us. “From our experience, the wrong answers are the best answers,” says Ripa, chuckling. 

Besides generation quiz rounds, more secret celebrities show their faces for “Who Am I?” (Anderson Cooper and Donny Osmond appeared last season.) Would Ripa take advantage of her other hosting gig to lure in names? “I never use Live to try and book the game,” she says, giving star-wrangling credit to her famous exec producer. “Jimmy Kimmel has far more celebrity phone numbers than I do.” 

The final “Toddler’s Choice” round — where the winners supplement the dough they’ve accumulated by sending their youngest family member to pick between, say, a shiny SUV or a ride-on unicorn — is more nail-biting than ever, Ripa says. “They accidentally chose incredible things based on whether they were hungry or thought something was a toy!”

Generation Gap, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, June 29, 9/8c, ABC