Discovery, Group Nine Media To Bring ‘Cash Cab’ Spinoff Set In An Elevator To Facebook Watch

As New York City riders get back in the Cash Cab, a digital companion to the beloved trivia show will arrive on Facebook Watch and Discovery Go. According to Deadline, Discovery and Group Nine Media are teaming up for Cash Lift, a series that will give contestants the chance to earn cash over the course of an elevator ride.

Cash Lift will be hosted by comedians Alex Weber and Zainab Johnson (pictured above), who will pepper unsuspecting hotel guests with trivia questions during elevator rides. Each correct answer will move the guests toward their intended floor, while a wrong response will send them all the way back down to the lobby.

With Cash Lift, Discovery and Group Nine are putting a digital spin on Cash Cab, a popular game show that aired on the Discovery TV channel between 2005 and 2012. In that series, host Ben Bailey surprised New York City taxi riders with in-car quizzes. A rebooted version, which was announced in March 2017, premiered on December 4.

Discovery and Group Nine have a close relationship; the latter company, which owns properties like NowThis, Thrillist, and The Dodo, launched thanks to a $100 million investment from the former. Discovery recently committed further funding to Group Nine, and the two partners have worked together on several content initiatives.

“After the success we had working with Group Nine Studios on Shark Week, we were excited to see what our next collaboration would be,” Discovery’s SVP of original content and social Fred Graver told Deadline. “I am thrilled that we were able to work together to create Cash Lift and have the chance to expand the popularity of Cash Cab on a new platform and introduce the series’ concept to a new generation of viewers.”

The first episode of Cash Lift arrived on December 18 on the show’s official Facebook page. Check it out below: