A Variety of Voices Creates a Show That Has Different Flavors: A Conversation with ‘Weakest Link’ Head Writer Ann Slichter

In each episode of the lightning-fast quick-witted series, eight contestants enter the studio as total strangers but must work together to bank the maximum amount of prize money available in each round. The contestants take turns answering general knowledge questions to build chains of correct answers. Consecutive correct answers greatly increase the value of the chain while incorrect answers break the chain and force the contestants to start over from the bottom of the money ladder. The top prize increases with each round but contestants must first vote to eliminate the fellow competitor they consider to be the “Weakest Link” in the chain. The contestant who receives the highest number of votes leaves the game as the host declares the iconic phrase, “You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye.” Hosted by Emmy Award winner Jane Lynch, Weakest Link, originally an international show 

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to running a game show. On the surface, it looks easy-breezy – the host quickly serves up jokes that land, the lights are dramatic, the sets are slick, and the questions are the right dose of “challenging.” But behind the scenes, there’s an incredible team of writers, producers, casting directors, execs, PAs – you name it – dedicated to bringing you the best show they possibly can. And that can certainly be said for the team at NCB’s Weakest Link.

Ann Slichter, the head writer of Weakest Link, is one of many brains that power the primetime game show. She spoke with Script gave us an insider look at what it takes to put up a show, from factoring in the different types of writing that come into play, writing to their incredible host Jane Lynch’s voice, and running it past the network before they call “action.” Plus, Ann reflects on her writing journey and how it led her to this particular point in time with her writing career and why mentorship plays a big part in her day-to-day.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: So many questions just about what you do as a game show writer. What does it all entail to make an episode of Weakest Link?

Ann Slichter: So, the great thing about the Weakest Link is that it has so many different types of writing. And we have a large staff, but we need a large staff because we generate so many questions. So, there's the trivia writing, which isn't necessarily your traditional trivia writing. For instance, 'If you wanted to visit the Gobi Desert, you'd need to be in what country?' They always have a little bit of a twist or true or false… but they have to be rapid-fire.

Then we've got people, Meggie McFadden and Jon Macks - Jon Macks is a legend. He has written for everybody - Dave Chappelle, he was a longtime writer for Jay Leno, Wanda Sykes - he is a veteran. And he brings to the table his experience and absolutely no ego. He's someone to watch. He and Meggie write the baseline of the script. So, the intros, to change up the game language, but they're always very clever and fun.

Then we have people during the show who are writing what we call 'kiss-offs.' For instance, 'Carl, our Santa, no Miracle on 34th Street with five votes, you are the weakest link?' or 'Willie who didn't know his ocean creatures,' we sometimes reference the thing they missed, 'the team has decided to Free Willy.' [laughs] What's fun is that she [Jane Lynch] will comment on something that they've done. And those are done right before they happen. What happens is I'm on a headset talking to the booth and we pitch our kiss-offs. And then our executive producer says, ‘What about these?’ They fire them into Jane's ear and she either says 'yes' or 'no' and we'll do a kiss-off in real-time.

We have what we call joke buckets in the realm of game show. And those are, we need actually anywhere between 15 and 19 per show, because the editors they need choices when they're cutting the show for time. And so, the way those are written are we write them as a group. We send them to Jane, Jane says, 'I like these,' then the Jane choices are sent to the BBC and NBC, and they weigh in. So, what we ended up having is it's sort of like, if you had a plate of hors d'oeuvres, and people were like, 'I like the mango, I like the brie, and I like the celery.' We end up with the ones that are favored by three parties. It's a wild thing. Not every show was built this way. But it makes, as you can imagine, when you have different voices, a variety of voices creates a show that has different flavors throughout the show.

Sadie: You've worked with Jane Lynch before on the previous game Hollywood Game Night, because she has such a very specific delivery, this razor edge sarcastic wit – what’s the process of writing to her voice and making it feel authentic?

Ann: Absolutely. Here's a good example of that. She'll say something like, 'Why don't we all go around and say our names and occupations? I'll go first. I'm Jane and I pick on you for a living.' [laughs] That's a classic Jane, right? Or for the twins show [“The Twins Edition”], 'Tell me about yourself and don't take up twice the amount of time as that would make this twice as boring.' And she can get away with it. And in fact, you know, when I say it, I mean, she's very clear, she's not Sue Sylvester. That was a different character. This is heightened Jane, who is sardonic, but she says it with a smile.

And we find, because I'm a hothouse flower, I'm very sensitive - that people live for it. They cannot wait for her to say something zesty and kind of pointed to them. They relish it. And then when the camera stops, the secret is she's like, 'How's it going?' And everybody's doing great. And then she goes back to Jane. Different Jane than Hollywood Game Night Jane, which was managing different games, dealing with celebrities, and being more of a talk show host because we would have stories from the different people or promoting and things like that, but also varied levels of ability. Because they were actors and performers. They weren't gamers.

Sadie: Knowing that you’re sharing the jokes with basically three different heads, what is the turnaround for you, the writers, and production to get that episode up and ready? I just can't imagine.

Ann: Sadie, it takes a village. We are so lucky that we have the A team on every level. Angelou [Deign] does our casting. Casting is everything. For instance, we did a drag queen episode [“Drag Extravaganza”], which was one of the things that we submitted for our nomination for the Writers Guild Award, which we are so thrilled when we get nominated, that is the win.

We have an incredible research staff, because in the world of game shows, I could say, 'Who is the current president?' Well, current president of what? Nabisco? United States? Everything has to be vetted by them. And quite often, they will come back to the writers and go, 'You need to fix this, this, this or this, or it's not a good question.' And there's money on the line. So, the questions have a very specific deadline.

And the scripts have their own separate deadline, because of the different vetting that it needs to go through. And on our show, unlike other shows, several of our executives Ryan O'Dowd from the BBC, and Stuart Krasnow, who is an executive producer, are also writers. You know how the stereotypical, 'Oh, network killed it'? In our world, the network, both NBC and BBC are quite helpful and very smart in this realm. And they will catch things that we may not catch. But everything has its own sort of deadline, and we come together on show day.

The only thing that doesn't have a deadline are the in-show things that happen. So, the things that I was telling you that happened live when we pause before we say goodbye to somebody, because we're sort of in a joke pitch realm. That happens in studio, or Jane's comments to the to the cast about well, 'You said you do movie reviews, but you missed the Scorsese question.' That kind of thing.

Sadie: Because these questions are very specific and can be punny at times as well, do you test how long it takes to even just say it, so they can make sure it's timed to the whole format?

Ann: Well, here's what we have. There's a man his name is Pilot Peppler. And Pilot has this crazy job. He makes databases for game shows. So, no matter whether you're on Millionaire, and I've been on many game shows, and that database serves as many helpful things. It's like, 'Well, didn't we ask that in season two?' And we can see in the database. But here's what he has, we can see how many characters. So, we know we cannot go over certain amount of characters, or Jane's not going to be able to get the sentence out in time. And every show that we do, we stack, I think, 130 questions for every round, she'll get as many as she can in the round. And then we'll have leftover questions. But unlike other shows, like Jeopardy, we're a volume show. That's why we have a large staff, which is great. Made up of all shapes and sizes.

Sadie: You guys are moving mountains over there.

Ann: We did 20 shows this season. We built extra shows. And one of the things that we realized is that there's a lot of fun with theme shows. So, we did the drag show, we've done the Days of Our Lives show [“Days of Our Lives Special”], a twins episode, the wrestling episode [“WWE Superstars Special”], and a holiday show [“How Jane Lynch Stole Christmas”]. So now we're doing more shows that are geared towards our traditional shows. 

Sadie: How did you fall into this world of game show writing? I know that, and no argument here, you wrote on one the best TV programs of all time, which is Bill Nye the Science Guy…

Ann: That was my first writing gig.

Sadie: Yeah, so going from that to writing trivia and game shows.

Ann: I was an intern, my brother went to school with all those Lampooners, so I was an intern on a show called Not Necessarily the News. And I started out with Greg Daniels, Conan O'Brien, a guy named Robert LaZebnik, Mike Reiss, and Al Jean. And I was so in awe off all of them, I wanted to be them. There weren't a lot of women, but they were nice enough to me, but you were so nervous when you're in your 20s you can't really pitch jokes or anything.

Based on my experience with them, I wanted to be a late night writer, and I could never crack late night. I tried and I couldn't get in it. However, after Bill Nye, I got my first WGA gig which was a late night show for a woman called The Stephanie Miller Show. That was co-run by Anne Beatts from Saturday Night Live and she became one of my mentors. So Anne, you know groundbreaking woman at SNL, along with Rosie Shuster and Marilyn Singer, wrote for Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Laraine Newman.

And I learned so many things from Anne, like producing and things like that. But she would say that, which I still believe, Lorne Michaels felt like to put on a variety show, you need a variety of voices. And it's the same thing on Weakest Link. It's very inclusive. We have women, we have people of color, which I feel is really important on our show.

So, I wrote on The Stephanie Miller Late Night Show, and then I just could not find work and it was really hard. This is how old I am Sadie - I would hear things like, 'We found our woman,' right. And then it was really weird, my friend reminded me of this if you went in for a job and there was a woman already on staff, the woman who was on staff was nervous because now they were adding a woman and it was like, ‘Wait a second. Can they possibly handle having two women on staff?’ It was one of those things.

Sadie: What?!

Ann: I know. [laughs] So then after I couldn't find work, I got a job on a show called Win Ben Stein's Money. And that was my first game show. And Win Ben Stein's Money was non-union, but I took it and myself and another non-union writer, they won an Emmy that year, we were unable to accept it because we couldn't call ourselves writers on the show because they were nervous we would get in trouble. Anyway, that was my entree into game shows.

And so Win Ben Stein's Money, Jimmy Kimmel was the sidekick, and they would have clever titles, but very straightforward Q&A. The same people that did Win Ben Stein's Money ended up doing [Who Wants to Be a] Millionaire. So that summer, we launched Millionaire. And in fact, I'm not bragging, but this is just a fun fact about me, they had million-dollar questions, but I wrote a question that was the first winning million-dollar question. So, you know that guy that called his dad that said, 'Dad, I'm about to win a million dollars?' That was my question.

Sadie: That's pretty cool.

Ann: It was pretty cool. And the reason I asked this particular question was that when we worked for Ben, we could never ask questions about Nixon, because he worked for Nixon. And I don't know if you know this about game shows, but there's very strict - it is a federal offense if you fix a game, Remember Quiz Show? So, we could not ask questions about things that we knew that Ben knew about. But I thought there was a fun fact about Nixon about being on Laugh-In. And it led itself to multiple choice, which is, 'Which US president appeared on the show Laugh-In?' The fourth choice is Nixon and this guy got it right.

And after Millionaire, I ended up on all kinds of shows, and it was sort of like I got on this freeway that I couldn't get off of, which is fine. Now, I still do other things, like I write award shows. I write the Sentinel Awards every year with a friend for the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center. I'm writing a one-hour drama with a friend that we're hoping to get out. But it has turned out that all my friends that were on sitcoms and late night are on to other things, but for some reason now, everybody wants game shows. So at least I’m at the right party at the right time. And my job is to bring people in, bring more women in, mentor people so that they can get jobs. It's a strange thing to kind of crack into, but I'm here to help.

Sadie: Any advice for those that are wanting to break into trivia and game show writing?

Ann: Absolutely. We promoted recently, some people from research to writing because they learned from the research department what makes a good question, and they have inside knowledge. So, becoming a researcher is one way. The other thing, and I say this to people, which is you know how you have trivia night at your local bar? If your bar does not have a local trivia night, start one. Write your own questions, but make sure they're sourced. You could do that and then you immediately have a sample. Or watch the show, write some samples. We are always open to new voices. We have what we call submission packets, which we read. I would say, make your own trivia show, film your own trivia show, find a local theater and put on a trivia night. Start writing questions, think of formats you could make.

I recently worked with a woman and I said, ‘I'm going to show you what I do, so you know what I do if I'm not here for next season.’ And this was on the last show, and it was her first game show. And I feel like my job is to be the person I wish I had when I was breaking in. Somebody that says, 'Come on over here, let's do this.' We had a PA named Jason on Weakest Link - I invited him to the comedy cave on this last show to pitch jokes - he was in there pitching. So, get a job as a PA on a show if you can. That's another way in.

And there's a way to let the head writer know, some people will be very aggressive, 'Hey, I want to be in there.' We respond to people that say, 'Hey, I'd like to be a writer. If you have five minutes, do you have any wise words?' As long as we're not breaking any guild rules, I check with the EIC and I say, ‘Can I borrow this PA for two hours during show, so they can see what we're doing?’ Because I think being on a show in a non-writing position is also very beneficial, because you can see how the factory works.

Sadie: Yeah, absolutely. It's good to have eyes on everything. You gain a deeper understanding and respect what others are bringing to the table.

Ann: Exactly. And also, the number one rule, my friend calls it The Godfather rule, which is this, if I am asked to do a job, and I can't do it, I don't say just, ‘No, I'm not available.’ I say, ‘No, I'm not available. But here's who you might call.’ And you give them names of people, including people that are just starting out that you know would be a good fit. I do that for a very selfish reason. Which is, I never know when those people that are getting this gig are going to be running something and I'm out of work and I need a gig. 

Watch new episodes of Season 3 of Weakest Link hosted by Emmy Award winner Jane Lynch on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC and streaming on Peacock.