He’s in the house.
Jack McBrayer, best known for playing the cheerful page Kenneth Parcell on “30 Rock,” returns to host Season 2 of the reality show “Zillow Gone Wild.”
“In Season 2, I think HGTV was allowing us to see more expensive properties. So, we’re seeing houses where people could take bigger risks and bigger swings,” McBrayer, 52, exclusively told The Post, noting that one former co-star, in particular, would be great on the series.
Premiering Friday, July 18 at 9:30 p.m. (on HGTV and streaming on Max), “Zillow Gone Wild” was inspired by the popular Instagram account @ZillowGoneWild.
Each episode shows McBrayer as he tours outlandish homes that are on the market, such as a Pennsylvania house built to resemble a giant shoe, or an off-the-grid facility in New Mexico partly made from old tires and bottles.
McBrayer explained that all his reactions onscreen are authentic, since he doesn’t get briefed on each house before touring it.
“It is a surprise. Our director, bless his heart, insisted that I not even look at the outside as we were driving up…. I looked insane, I’m sure,” he joked. “But it’s kind of cool when you have a job where the only preparation you have to do is zero preparation. I’m like, ‘I am not going to argue too much!’”
On camera, his big smile and earnest demeanor are similar to his character’s personality on “30 Rock,” which he co-starred in with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan from 2006 to 2013.
“Oh yeah, that’s all my garden grows,” he said, referring to his famous positive attitude and big smile.
“In fact, I’m so glad I got any job in the first place, because I can’t do anything else,” he quipped.
“So I’m glad that I’m known for that, and that that’s what people want when they hire me. You won’t see me doing like a gritty melodrama anytime soon!”
Even though he said dramas aren’t his forte, McBrayer did guest star on an Oct. 2024 episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
“To be fair, I was a bit of the comic relief there,” he said.
“It was really fun. I reached a point in my life and in my career where I’m gonna say ‘yes’ to the unexpected opportunities,” the star recalled. “Never in a million years did I think I’d be asked to be on an episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ which has been on for 21 years. And lo and behold, there I am on the operating table, whimpering about my kidneys.”
McBrayer said that fans still approach him quoting lines from “30 Rock” regularly.
“That was really the first television that I’d done,” he said.
“I have an extensive background in improvisation…But because ‘30 Rock’ was so densely packed with jokes, you had to spit out those lines very quickly.”
McBrayer shared that although the show premiered nearly twenty years ago, “I still call everybody on their birthday. We are all still in touch. And, it is just a delight to see the people when I do. It was just such an important part of my life.”
As for which of his former castmates would make the best guest on his current show, the actor answered without hesitation.
“Now, Tracy Morgan would be a person who would be featured on ‘Zillow Gone Wild,’” McBrayer told The post.
He recalled that Morgan once had to leave set early “because his shark tank was leaking.”
McBrayer, meanwhile, said that his “golly gee” demeanor gave his “Zillow Gone Wild” crew a challenge.
“It is funny, because at one point, the editors did reach out to me and were like, ‘Okay, now Jack, we have to explore different ways to be astonished.’”
He added, “One of the homeowners this season said, ‘Oh yeah, from Season 1, we would play a drinking game on how many times you would say ‘wow.’ We got drunk real quick.’”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
