Jaleel White has carved out a successful hosting career beyond scripted television. The actor, who played Steve Urkel for nine seasons on ABC sitcom Family Matters, has developed a knack for hosting and producing. Viewers can not only catch him on HGTV’s nostalgic trip Totally 90s House, but also for Season 3 of Flip Side.
New episodes of the game show kick off on September 14, with teams once again playing for a shot of $10,000 by guessing the top answers based on anonymous surveys. Mixed in for the first time are celebrities, with The Young & Restless cast members Bryton James and Christel Khalil among the famous faces. The pair each appeared on Family Matters with James as Richie Crawford and Khalil credited for one episode. The battle for soap supremacy also features Beyond the Gates’ Colby Muhammad and RhonniRose Mantilla.
Here, White breaks down what to expect from the new season of Flip Side.
“Episode 6/11/2026” — Coverage of the CBS Original Series Flip Side, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Quantrell Colbert/CBS ©2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Going into Season 3, talk a little bit about just how you feel like you’ve grown as a host? How is it seeing the show be so successful? Because when you start out, there is always the wonder if a show will do well or not.
Jaleel White: You can’t even think about that. You just have to try to make it feel good for the people that are participating. Whether it’s me as the host, the crew, the contestants, I really always try to pour a lot of my time into the contestants. We had a lot of fun this year because we did some celebrity episodes. We’ll see how they play. We have a cast of Ms. Pat on. We had an unofficial professional football episode where we had a bunch of guys from the Atlanta Falcons. That was kind of cool. That was really, really fun. We had the cast of The Young and the Restless playing opposite each other. Those episodes were really fun because now I’m on the stage with people who are performers themselves, or celebrities themselves, and that just creates a different, more fun dynamic.
How was Ms. Pat?
Well, when you’re working with Ms. Pat, you have to stay on your toes. She is always going to have a quick retort. Iron sharpens iron. That’s the best answer.
You mentioned The Young & the Restless cast on the show. It also doubled a small Family Matters reunion with Bryton James playing. What was that like?
He definitely got his own career going. That was fantastic. Catching up with Bryton was fantastic. We talked on the phone before he even came to the show. I said, “Man, you know how jealous I was of you.” He was like, “What? You were jealous of me?” I was like, “Yeah, man. You used to hang out with Michael Jackson every other weekend, talking about all this cool stuff y’all did at Neverland.” To be adults and grown men and now share this kind of stuff. He has a lot of amazing Michael Jackson stories. Positive, the good ones. I just remember he and his mom and his dad always coming back from Neverland every other weekend, talking about some amazing thing they had done with Michael Jackson. I will slide in each other’s DMs every now and then just catch up. so it was a really cool reunion to do. He and his co-star [Christel Khalil] are fun.
And it probably reminds you that, man, time goes by so fast.
Exactly. Those are the moments with Bryton that make me check my own dang birthday. I’m like, “Damn, I’ve really been doing this for a while.”
It’s nice with the celebrity elements because there is the charity element and helping create awareness for numerous causes. What else do you want to say about the new season?
That’s always fantastic. It’s bigger, better, faster. We have 180 episodes where anything can happen over the course of 180 episodes. It’s all about just creating that rapport with the contestant and staying a step ahead of the competition with fresh questions. We know we’re going to get a smarter contestant every season.
How is it to be known for Flip Side now, too?
It’s fun. For a show to become part of a talent’s identity and legacy, I think it takes three seasons. I think we just achieved that. I think we just achieved that. I love passing through TSA and having, you know, a bunch of millennial guys saying, “Man, my mom watches your show around the clock.” You know, I like that compliment. It is different at this age. And like I said, I do this show for the contestants because it’s fun for people to play along.
There is something enduring about game shows.
Yeah, I think it’s a formula. It’s time tested. It has managed to survive a lot of the unexpected changes that have hit our business. It just taps into a simple thing with a focus on audience engagement. Whenever the focus is on the audience experience, I think you just have a better chance of winning. To be quite honest, it’s kind of an honor to be even mentioned in the same breath as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
With the new season, how would you say the questions and surveys have evolved?
We’ve officially crossed the 500 episode mark. So, every season you get a smarter contestant. So you have to be a smarter producer. You have to try to make the questions interesting. You know, just try to stay one step ahead. And the nature of the game is for a contestant to figure out how to undermine it so they win. You have to keep advancing the game while protecting the integrity of the game. That’s the part that. I’m kind of lucky to be involved because I’m also a producer on the show, so I can see when our writers are doing their best.
Jodie Sweetin, Beverley Mitchell, Brian Austin Green, Jaleel White, Matthew Lawrence, Melissa Joan Hart, and Keshia Knight Pulliam, ‘Totally ’90s House, ‘HGTV, Season 1, premieres August 26, 2026.
Filming so many episodes, how do you kind of keep your energy up?
I’m very regimented when I’m doing the show. I work out. Even watching what I eat, but even with team building. I’ll grab some of the camera guys and others and we’ll go race cars at the end of the night. I’ll rent out a place for us all to go race cars. I really work hard to try to create a family atmosphere. I firmly believe that when that atmosphere is that comfortable in and around the set, that can translate onscreen.
You’re also hosting Totally ’90s House. How do you compare your style hosting that with Flip Side?
Totally ‘90s House is a lot more technical because it’s really me throwing it to people who are experts in their field of design. I kind of got to stick to the script a little bit more. Flip Side I get to fly loose with the contestants. But both shows are about that viewer experience.
How was it seeing some familiar faces working on Totally ‘90s House? Maybe we’ll see some involved in future episodes of Flip Side.
Listen, if it comes back for another season, I wouldn’t have an issue with that at all. I’d like to put Brian Austin Green and Keshia Knight Pulliam on Flip Side. That’d be great. Seeing them on Totally ‘90s House was great. Again, another reunion. We’ve crisscrossed paths in our lives, literally every single one. The only one I wasn’t quite as familiar with was Beverly [Mitchell], but when you have a shared experience, you find she fits in with ease.
When it comes to Flip Side, is there anything you want to see the show do next?
I hate to be a downer, but I don’t really move the bar for myself when it comes to that show. I know that show is about me giving the contestant an experience and a chance to win $10,000. And if that experience goes the way I know it can and should go, then It’s a bankable experience for the viewer. If you made it to primetime. Maybe a celebrity version or a junior version. We always could do a Flip Side After Dark, a racier version. Flipside After Dark. There’re so many different incarnations that could come from the show that I would welcome. But I just never try to put the cart before the horse, because that’s where the bigwigs have to do when they do make their decisions. So, my job is to keep the show consistent and fun.