Neil Patrick Harris hosting Netflix's 'Whats In the Box?' game show Courtesy of Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text This holiday season, Neil Patrick Harris is taking White Elephant to mammoth levels. You'll never guess the premise and prize location(s) for Netflix's new, wholly original game show, What's In the Box?, hosted by Harris, a self-described game nut. OK, so you just did. But if the sheer scope of the set doesn't get you, the first prize reveal probably will. (Stick around until the massive box has been all-the-way raised.) The gold coloration of the entire presentation is a very purposeful choice. Related Stories Movies How Corporate Drama Is Making 'Sinners' an Oscar Favorite TV Netflix to Adapt 'The God of the Woods' Novel for Series Adaptation What's In the Box? has some obvious Is It Cake? vibes, just with less eggs, flour, butter and sugar. Both are Netflix competition shows with questions as titles, and their contestants stick around for an entire season. Most purposefully, both shows were created with the same goal in mind: family co-viewing. Is It Cake? has already reached legendary status on millions of living room sofas; What's In the Box? should be so lucky. And perhaps it will be. An added wrinkle to What's In the Box?, Harris' favorite one, is that a pair winning a prize doesn't mean they go home with it - no, the game is just getting started. Much like this Christmas, be careful what you unwrap early at the family Yankee Swap, because if it's good (usually, a gift card), everyone and your mother is coming for it. What's In the Box? is not Harris' first foray with Netflix. He starred as Count Olaf in the excellent A Series of Unfortunate Events and led the one-and-done Darren Star comedy Uncoupled. Both series come up in the conversation with The Hollywood Reporter below, which includes Harris' best guess as to what went south with the plan for Uncoupled season two to air on Showtime. *** Not too long ago, game shows needed to wow with serious prize money - usually $1 million - whereas the "bigness" of What's In the Box? is more about the physical size of the boxes and what they could hold. Was that the pitch? Life-changing prizes - whether they be of enormous value financially or of a singular experience or a multitude of things that make your life easier - we were just trying to make 12 boxes that eight teams of two would be really interested in coveting. I can't speak to the team's budget who created all of the prizes but we wanted all of them, for sure, to be impressive. Because part of the mechanics of the game is collecting as many of the prizes as you can, it's not just winning the prize, it's keeping the prize. I found the most compelling piece of the gameplay to be watching people who work really hard to [win] the box and then be thrilled, then feel ownership in the box, even though it's only box two out of 12. And odds are, you may not keep that box. Those people who then got their box taken away were really, authentically upset, hurt and angry and vindictive about it. I found that compelling. You describe yourself as a game night nut, so hosting seems like a natural extension. Why this one? I was interested for a handful of reasons. One is that I love that it's original IP - it's not based on a show that has existed elsewhere where we're just doing the U.S. version. As we did game testing in rooms, and we tried alternate endings, different verbiage - I found that fun. And I think where we landed is really strong. I love the binge-ability, because there's no commercial breaks. As a host, I'm not having to constantly reintroduce gameplay. And since the teams stay all season long for six episodes, you're really starting to have weird kinship - or watching how people are reacting and engaging with each other on the longterm. That makes it a singular experience, which I think Netflix is really quite good at. It checks a lot of boxes. In my career, I've tried to be as diverse in my demographic appeal as I can. For every Gone Girl, I try to do a Smurfs. So when you're looking at What's In the Box?, it really is a show that anyone can watch - especially together during the holidays. It has a little bit of Is It Cake? in it for sure. I think creating content that is authentically compelling to more than one demographic is the key. Kids don't need to just watch kids shows. There's so much content aimed directly at adults that kids really shouldn't be watching. When you can find that sweet spot in the middle, it allows more opportunity for people to watch things together. We live in a world now where everyone is consuming a lot of information independently throughout the day on short-form, swipe-able videos - so everyone has their own algorithm. As a society and as human bei