TBS late-night host Samantha Bee announced the launch of a political mobile app game geared toward ginning up turnout among young voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“We have no idea if this will be impactful or not, but we just wanted to try something,” Bee told an audience at a New York launch event where the TBS show’s live mobile app, This is Not a Game: The Game, was rolled out, Deadline reports.
“It felt like somebody needed to try something. … We can’t quite conquer gerrymandering with this, but we’ll try that next,” the Full Frontal host said of the free trivia-style app that rewards gamers with cash prizes based on their knowledge of political issues.
“After downloading the free app, contestants are invited to play a daily game live at a set time, answering 10 questions and vying for a share of $5,000 in prize money,” Deadline reports. “The first game will be on the night of September 12.”
The app, according to Full Frontal producer Razan Ghalayini, is “simple and dumb” and delivers a user-friendly social experience intended to appeal to potential voters. The trivia questions are bipartisan, Bee stresses, but are asked “in the voice of the show.”
The launch of the TBS show’s voter registration app comes mere months removed from an advertiser revolt and calls to boycott Bee’s show after the Comedy Central alum called White House advisor Ivanka Trump a “cunt.”
The infamous May episode saw Bee slamming President Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies and ended with her calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt” who needed to “do something about [her] dad’s immigration practices.”
Bee initially offered a canned apology but was unrepentant a month later.
“I can tell you, as long as we have breath in our bodies and 21 minutes of airtime once a week, repeats on Saturdays, that we as a show will never stop shouting [about] the inhumanities of this world from the rooftops and striving to make it a better place” said Bee in June at the Television Academy Honors.
Asked last month about the reaction to calling President Trump’s daughter a “feckless cunt,” Samantha Bee said “It was definitely unpleasant. It was a real learning experience. I was very surprised. I felt that it was incredibly overblown. Like beyond overblown.”
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