After five years on Saturday Night Live and an Emmy nomination for her work, Leslie Jones had enough. She stunned many by leaving her gig as a full-time cast member.
Now, she’s resurfaced as executive producer and host of a new version of the game show Supermarket Sweep on ABC.
“I don’t miss it. At all,” Jones said to ET about her SNL days. “That job was hard, man. That job was like two jobs and very restrictive, too. I wasn’t very free there.”
Apparently, her new gig fulfills her. “It’s just, you know, a comedian’s dream come true,” she says of the Supermarket Sweep job.
The revived Supermarket Sweep follows the same format as it did when it debuted in 1965: teams answer a few questions that will add time to their shopping clock, then try to accumulate as much as they can in that time period in a mad dash through the grocery store, with the highest-priced food collection winning the competition.
The new version will give away more money. “We have a lot of bonuses, we’re giving money away to essential workers every week,” Jones said. She added that safety protocols will be in effect during the pandemic.
Jones once tried out for an earlier version of the show, but failed to qualify when a roommate ran out on her. Now, she’s achieved a dream.
“When you see the carts and you see the game play and you go, ‘Oh, OK and I’m hosting it. Oh, this is fun!’” Jones said.