Sam Reich runs the games on Game Changer, and he just admitted he can’t control how they play out. In a new interview with AV Club, Reich opened up about season 8 of the Dropout Network’s hit show, explaining why he sometimes has to ignore the audience entirely.
The show’s success has grown so much that Reich says pleasing everyone is impossible. “There’s a way in which I feel like I have to tune out the audience and just focus on creating the thing that I’m most excited about,” he told AV Club. “We’re never going to please everybody.”
Crunchy Mechanics Take a Hit
Reich says he plans to pull back on complex game mechanics for season 9. He told AV Club that the adjustment comes from balancing what he loves with what the audience wants.
“I’m very proud of what we did this season,” he said. “If I had to make an adjustment between this season and next season, it’s pulling back a little bit on crunchier game mechanics.”
The shift is about making the show accessible to viewers who don’t follow game design closely. Reich wants the games to still be interesting without requiring a deep knowledge of the rules.
Social Deduction Takes Over
Season 8 leaned heavily on social deduction games, and Reich named Blood On The Clocktower as a personal favorite. He explained why the format works for television.
“It gives people the opportunity to lie,” he said. “That is not something that we’ve done a lot of in Game Changer, historically.”
He singled out “Kangaroo Court” as his favorite of the season. “It’s, ‘Can I convince people that I did?’ I just think it’s really elegant as a game mechanic, which I haven’t seen a lot of before.”
The Magic Circle Problem
Reich knows the improv performers want to entertain first and win second. That tension is part of what makes the show work.
“The way in which that helps us is, when we need to do something as a show, whether it’s be generous to a particular player, or we need to balance the scales somehow,” he said.
The lack of real stakes is intentional. Reich resisted offering big prizes during the pandemic season but now resists them again.
“We did during the COVID season, because we were trying to raise morale,” he said. “Fundamentally I’m resistant to offering meaningful prizes on Game Changer because I don’t want the show to turn into a Mr. Beast kind of thing.”
The only stakes are meta: wanting to say you won, knowing a lot of people watch, and enjoying the production itself.
Night Shift Proves the Point
Reich said the show’s unpredictability is part of its appeal. Episodes like “Night Shift” don’t always feel competitive, and that’s okay.
“You can only do so much planning for this show,” he said. “If we were moreso manipulating either the players or the outcome, we would be able to control more for this variable, and decide that the show is more or less competitive.”
He sees the show as a social experiment. Players are trapped on stage with no idea what will happen, and Reich enjoys watching how they react.
The Lever He Can’t Pull
Reich says the show’s competitiveness is something he doesn’t control, and he’s glad it stays that way.
“If we decided that the show is more competitive, I think we’d be appealing to one set of people and not the other set of people, and vice versa,” he said. “Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t have control over this lever.”
The show is authentic, he says. It’s cut down but true to what happened.
Key Facts
- Season 8 is the current season of Game Changer
- Season 9 is planned with a focus on accessibility
- Reich is a Blood On The Clocktower fanatic
- “Kangaroo Court” is Reich’s favorite game of the season
- Reich says the show has no real stakes, only meta ones
The interview is a rare look behind the scenes of a show that feels improvised but isn’t. Reich’s honesty about his limits is refreshing. He’s not the puppet master; he’s just the guy who sets the table and hopes the players sit down.
See the video the story is built around at The A.V. Club.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.