Millions of people recognize Scott Rogowsky as the original host of HQ Trivia, the daily live trivia app that became massively popular in 2017 before fizzling out in 2019. CNN looked back on that phase of Rogowsky’s life in the 2023 documentary, Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia. But I first met Scott when he was barely out of college, one of the young upstarts in the downtown New York comedy scene in the late oughts. So we enjoyed a fun stroll down memory lane, as Rogowsky reflected with me on how his internship with The Onion led him down a path that included making viral videos with Playboy, a sports talk show with the future editor-in-chief of Vulture, to his own talk show, “Running Late with Scott Rogowsky,” all the way through HQ to his current life in southern California, where he runs his own vintage clothing and sports memorabilia shop, Quiz Daddy’s Closet, in Santa Monica.
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This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.
How do you feel about how the CNN documentary turned out?
I think they did a good job with it. You know, contrary to what some of the Internet might believe, I had nothing to do with the production or direction or editing or anything to do with the documentary — other than appearing in it. So if there are people who are upset about certain people being left out, or certain narratives not being told — it was NOT my call, not my fault. Take it up with the director and the production company. I was a little nervous actually. I was hesitant to do it, because I’d already talked so much about it. And then once I interviewed. I mean, the interview process, you want to go behind the scenes, was a bit of a nightmare. And God bless, I know a lot of hard people worked on this thing. But they picked an AirBnb in Brooklyn to shoot this interview and it was the thinnest walls in Brooklyn. For whatever reason, I guess we were too close to JFK. There were planes going overhead, and every five minutes we had to stop down for planes. She'd asked me some question like, ‘What was it like to have your friend and boss overdosing on drugs?’ I'm trying to get this emotional story out, and all of a sudden, STOP. Cut. And I had to reset my story all the time. So that part of it was not the most fun and a little frustrating. And then, when you do these things, even talking to journalists, you never know how your words are gonna be twisted or used or especially with a documentary, you know, I think back to the famous Simpsons Hard Copy parody, with Homer saying ‘sweet, sweet can,’ and how they recut his interview. So it's like, you know, once you do this thing, it's fair game. They can chop it up however they want.
My hope was, and it turned out to be true is that you know, this is CNN. There's some journalistic standards they have to adhere to, they’re not going to take things out of context or really mangle my intention. So I was pleased with how that came out. There were a few instances where I thought they could have let me talk a little more, let me finish the thought or close the loop on some things. But it's an hour and 28 minutes. I probably gave them enough material in there to go double the length. All in all, I probably gave them six to eight hours. Don't get me wrong here. I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I got the story out and I'm very thankful to Salima, the director, and Left/Right, the producers who really I think did a fine job all in all.
That final shot though of you blowing leaves outside of Quiz Daddy’s, such a poignant ending.
My one critique of that whole ending is: So you’ve got the whole, Where are they now?, which you know, it's a nice tidy wrap-up to a documentary and you see my story. How about everybody else who worked on the documentary, and especially how about Rus (Yusupov)? Where's Rus today? He was the other — Colin, we know where he is, unfortunately. But where is the other main character in this thing? I frankly don't know.
What’s going on with the other hosts?
Exactly! What's going on with the other hosts? I mean, everybody who worked on the show on HQ, and the other hosts included, they've all gone on to do great things and they're they're all finding success, which is great. I know that. But the audience doesn't know that. So I thought that could have been included. But again, it's hard to pack everything in.
I didn't realize that you were fresh out of college, the first time I met you that in the winter/spring of 2008, outside of Rififi, where you had this idea to launch your own comedy record label. And you were gonna start by making an album with Tom McCaffrey. And you're explaining this to me outside Rififi.
Long live Rififi.
And I was like who is this guy and what is happening here? I didn't realize you had just graduated from college.
I mean, at that point, I guess I'd been a year out of school and I was interning at The Onion.