Kevin and Frankie Jonas on Their Twisted Show Where Famous Relatives Lie to Each Other for $100K

The latest entry into the reality competition show canon has a bit of a head-scratching premise.

On ABC’s Claim to Fame, 12 people compete to stay in a house—Katy Perry’s old Hollywood Hills mansion, to be exact—for as long as possible without their roommates sleuthing out the name of their famous brother, sister, uncle, or cousin. The prize? For them, it’s $100,000. For us, it’s hours of suspense, shaky alliances, and delicious, bald-faced lying.

Viewers are introduced to the dozen players as they settle into a house with no connection to the outside world for six weeks. They have to get to know each other if they want to make friends and avoid the elimination rounds, but they can’t say too much about themselves if they want to keep their secret.

Some skate by on charm and strategy because their faces give away their famous familial connection immediately. Others think they have the game down pat, only to be let down quickly. Every now and then, they take turns standing in front of a “clue wall” covered in figurines that promise insights into everyone’s identity. It’s Big Brother meets Celebrity Family Feud meets the board game Clue, and it’s the kind of show that makes you wonder what they do all day at network programming offices. But then you actually watch it and you suddenly remember why there were 14 seasons of Food Network Star.

The Daily Beast spoke to Claim to Fame hosts Kevin and Frankie Jonas (Kevin is one-third of the Jonas Brothers alongside Joe and Nick; Frankie is the youngest and, uh, least famous of the Jonas clan) about what we can expect from the first season and what it reveals about their own lives as celebrity siblings.

I have to be honest, when I first heard about the show, I was kind of like, “What is going on?” I feel like we’re in an era of crazy reality competitions, but I watched the first two episodes and I was hooked.

Kevin: That’s good.

Frankie: We love to hear that.

Kevin: This show, specifically, is one of those shows where you’re confused when you hear about it because you’re like, “How is this gonna work?” And then you see it and you’re completely enthralled, like we were while we were hosting. We didn’t know who was related to who. They actually kept it a secret for us as well. So we kind of got to play along while we were hosting the show. Every time we were doing a reveal, we got it as a surprise for us as well, which is really fun.

Frankie: Every reaction you see from us is completely genuine throughout the entire show.

Kevin: Especially Frankie.

Kevin: Oh, especially me. I got hype. I got real hype.

It’s so funny that the people who seemed obvious to the housemates weren’t obvious to me.

Kevin: It was pretty amazing to see how they played it as gameplay. Their theory, or whatever you want to call it, for them to actually try to conceal their identity. Some did it really well and some need to watch more reality TV.

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So who approached you guys for this?

Kevin: I was reached out to, with Frankie as well, through our teams at ABC. [Kevin and his other younger brothers, Nick and Joe, had a TV show and starred in two movies for parent company Disney.] I’ve always loved the hosting side of things and always been looking for the right project to do, and this kind of felt perfect with being able to do it together. Even though we’re related to each other and that makes a lot of sense, we’re also related to two other famous people, so we can actually speak to the players in a way they can relate to and kind of understand, so we were able to kind of push the buttons in the right way.

Frankie: And I don’t have any hosting experience, right? So when I got the call that I could potentially host the show with Kevin, I jumped as soon as I could and as high as they wanted me to.

That must be so fun. And I’m surprised how young you still are. For some reason I thought you would be older by now, but you’re still 21.

Kevin: Me. 21, I love it.

Frankie: He’s definitely not 21.

Had you ever thought about hosting before?

Frankie: I’ve tried it a couple times, but I haven’t really had a big professional experience such as this one. We walked in the first day, and for the entire time we filmed, we just had a blast. We walked in and we just trusted each other. We just had fun. And it really comes out on the show.

It does. I like how they kept some of the gags of you guys teasing each other.

Kevin: Yeah, that was very much a theme that was running throughout the entire show.

Frankie: If that made it in the cut, you can only imagine how much was cut from it.

Do you think there’s a kind of universal experience to being a celebrity relative? Do you think the contestants have shown any of these immutable traits?

Frankie: For me, it was interesting to watch [how] something about being a relative of a celebrity is having trouble trusting people and having trouble finding friends. So many of the contestants came into this show expecting to meet people who have the same experiences as them and really create bonds, but once they got there, they realized there was $100,000 on the line, and so all those social dynamics went out the window and it’s just a free-for-all.

Kevin: It was really fun and interesting to show up every day on set and have 24 hours of filming that we weren’t there for. We would get the updates and have to, like, operate in that world. It was crazy to see how quickly these people became friends and then enemies overnight.

Without spoiling too much, there’s a huge bombshell in the first episode where someone breaks the rules and has to leave, which ends up being very useful for the person who was supposed to guess them. How does something like that even get past production?

Kevin: We don’t know!

Frankie: We’re so grateful that it did.

Kevin: We were in the middle of this guess-off when this went down, and I can’t believe that it played out the way it did. It’s an interesting way to get into the show. In the first episode, you want the format to be what the format’s gonna be so people can get accustomed to it. But it also allowed the audience to realize how quickly—one wrong guess, you will be going home.

Would you guys have ever done this show as contestants?

Kevin: I don’t know if we would’ve been able to hide our identities, personally. Even Frankie, the most popular Jonas in the family. That would be tough.

Frankie: You know, I think I would’ve had fun trying. I feel like I just wouldn’t be able to shut my mouth. I would just talk myself into a corner.

Kevin: It would probably be a good strategy.

Frankie: It probably would’ve been. People just wouldn’t want to talk to me ‘cause they would just get so annoyed and go in the other room.

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Kevin, you have two daughters. A lot of the show is about stepping out of someone else’s shadows. I know they’re pretty young still, but is that something you think about when you’re raising your children under the specter of celebrity?

Kevin: I think our world is interesting. It’s something I’m still navigating. Our oldest is only 8, so it’s gonna be some time. But there are times when dad is super cool and there are times when, you know, we don’t wanna talk about the Jonas Brothers anymore. So it all depends. But for us, if there is something they want to pursue in any capacity, I will support them, but never push them. It’s gotta be what they love, what they’re interested in. Just like our parents, they never pushed us to be doing music or doing this, but they always supported us knowing that this is what we wanted.

Frankie: That being said, if Alena ever decides to escape our shadow, or their shadow, we will be in her shadow very quickly. That girl is a star.

That’s fun and scary, I’m sure.

Kevin: Yeah. Don’t give me nightmares, man.

I can’t imagine. There’s just so much stardom in one family. Frankie, are you still in school?

Frankie: I’m taking a year off right now. Still enrolled at Columbia. I’m studying astrophysics and creative writing. Either, both, or one of the two, we’ll see.

What about you, Kevin? Do you have anything else cooking?

Kevin: Obviously, the mothership Jonas Brothers stuff is always going and we’re working on music, have been for a while. We’re the most excited about this project than we’ve ever been. We got other shows in development and other works, but for now we’re just really excited about Claim to Fame coming out, and we’re ready, man. It’s gonna be fun. It’s been a long time coming. We spent a lot of time filming this thing, so it’s exciting to be able to do it together.

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