Game show’s no trivial pursuit for Ribeiro

McClatchy NEWSPAPERS

BEVERLY HILLS — Actor Alfonso Ribeiro chose an odd way to train for his newest gig. He sat on a cruise ship with his best buddy, Joey Fatone (*NSync), and played a version of Trivial Pursuit for endless hours.

That may sound like goofing off, but Ribeiro was rehearsing for his role as host for the new game show, “Catch 21,” which airs on GSN five nights a week.

“I got some cards, we all sat around a table. I played the host. Joey and his wife and a friend of mine were the contestants, and we got a Trivial Pursuit game so we could have questions and played the game for hours and hours and hours,” he says in the lobby bar of a hotel here.

“Joey’s one of my best friends. That helped me hone my hosting skills so once I came back here and started actually working on the show I really had the flow of it. But it was much harder than I ever thought it would be.”

Ribeiro, best known as the moppet from “Silver Spoons,” the preppy son from “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and the clinical doctor on “In the House” had no intention of becoming a game show host.

“It wasn’t something I ever thought, ‘I should pay attention to this.’ But in my career I’ve always felt I wanted to do many different things — being an actor and singer and dancer, stage performer, television, movies, now directing and producing — I’ve always felt I wanted to put my hand in every aspect. I want to know, ‘Hey, can I do that?'"