HQ Trivia’s former host launches a new word puzzle game show where players compete against him for cash prizes.
San Francisco: Scott Rogowsky is a comedian who knows how to have fun. That’s why he walked around a big comic book event in New York City with a picture of himself looking like a “wanted” poster. He filmed himself asking people, “Have you seen this man?”
Many people looked at him and thought he looked familiar. One person said, “You look familiar! Where do I know you from?” as if Rogowsky could be someone they met at a party. Another person stared and said, “I know your face.” A person dressed as a Ghostbuster finally recognized him.
The cosplayer asked, “Did you used to do that game show online?” like HQ Trivia. He added, “Like, every night?” Rogowsky was just making fun of himself and playing along. He told TechCrunch, “I know my place. I’m not walking around like everybody’s supposed to know who I am.”
But seven years ago, everybody did know who he was. He was the host of HQ Trivia, a mobile app that became very popular very fast. Between 2017 and 2019, he hosted live game shows twice a day on phones. At its most popular time, the app had more than 2.4 million people watching each night. The app was downloaded 20 million times in total.
Now the comedian is back with a new app called Savvy. The first game is TextSavvy, which is like HQ but different. Instead of trivia questions, players compete against Rogowsky in word puzzles. The game mixes parts of Wordle and Connections, two popular word games. Players can win real money playing TextSavvy.
Rogowsky says, “I believe this is my calling in a weird way.” He explains that when he’s in front of the camera with lots of people watching, “it just flows.” He says this feeling is the same as when he hosted HQ Trivia, except now it’s word puzzles instead of trivia questions.
HQ Trivia was created by the people who made Vine, a short video app before TikTok. The app became very famous in culture. News channels showed stories about office workers stopping work at 3 p.m. to play HQ. It was new and exciting for streaming entertainment until the company had big problems and closed down.
The company had many issues. One founder died from a drug overdose. The other founder argued with staff and threatened to fire Rogowsky over a simple comment about liking salads. The biggest problem was money. HQ Trivia raised $15 million but gave away too much cash without a good plan to make money. The company went bankrupt in February 2020.
This was very hard for Rogowsky. More bad things happened too. He left HQ to host a baseball show but that show ended when the pandemic stopped baseball games. He tried several times to start something new like HQ, but those attempts didn’t work out.
Rogowsky says, “Crazy things happened that I had no control over, and I felt like I was being tossed and turned on this raft in the ocean.” He thought he was done with show business and opened a store selling old things in California. But he missed making people laugh.
He went through “a very meaningful personal transformation” in the last few years. He went on a seven-day mountain trip called “the Hoffman Process.” He describes it as a program that helps you take control of your life again by combining lessons in psychology and brain science.
Rogowsky says the process gave him clarity. He realized, “I have more to do here. I got out of that retreat and I was like, ‘I have something to say. People find me funny and entertaining. I find myself funny and entertaining.’” He decided to try entertainment again.
People watched HQ Trivia not just to win money but because Rogowsky was entertaining. His quick jokes and charm made him popular with fans who still call him “Quiz Daddy.” He says looking back, “From the psychological, emotional side, I couldn’t really process what was going on.”
He explains that in the seven years since HQ ended, he has “a vastly new perspective.” He knows he still has fans who support him. He says, “They’re on board with me, and it’s a matter of getting the word out” about his new app Savvy.
Last year, a game designer from Europe named Johan de Jager messaged Rogowsky on X (formerly Twitter). The designer had an idea to make the host play against the audience instead of just asking questions. Rogowsky thought this “two-way interaction” was something new and interesting.
Rogowsky was worried that trivia games wouldn’t work fairly with artificial intelligence helping people find answers. So Savvy uses word puzzles instead of trivia questions. This makes the game fair for everyone playing against Rogowsky.
So far, the most money given away in one TextSavvy game is about $400. This is much less than HQ’s big prizes of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The reason is that Rogowsky and his partners are paying for everything themselves instead of getting money from investors.
Rogowsky explains, “HQ was funded by venture capital. They had $8 million in the bank to start. They got another $15 million from other venture capitalists. We don’t got that.” He jokes on his broadcasts, “This is a low-budge operashe because I’m paying for it!”
Rogowsky has talked to investors about Savvy and received some good offers. But he knows that venture money often pushes companies to grow very fast and make huge profits quickly. This pressure can cause companies to fail, which is what happened to HQ Trivia.
He says, “People want to 10x and 100x [their investment].” Rogowsky would rather grow slowly and make a good business. He wants to get to a point where the company makes enough money to keep growing, hire more people, and make more games. He’s not looking for a big payout to sell the company.
Rogowsky says, “This is what I want to do. I’m going to do this as long as I continue to wake up every morning and say, ‘Goddamn, I’m excited to get up there in front of that camera and have fun.’” He wants to keep doing what he loves without outside pressure.
TextSavvy is having a “Season 0” right now, which is like a trial period. This lets the team fix any technical problems before the official launch on March 1. Without much advertising, TextSavvy has had up to 4,000 viewers in one night so far.
This isn’t as many viewers as HQ had, but it’s a start. When TechCrunch first wrote about HQ Trivia, it only had about 3,300 people watching at the same time. Rogowsky believes Savvy could become popular again like HQ did years ago.
Rogowsky promises, “We’re not going anywhere this time.” He says there won’t be problems like before. “There’s no one to fire me. There’s no drama, there’s no tension. There’s not going to be a documentary about Savvy the way there was about HQ.” He wants to build something lasting this time.