What Happened to Host Patton Oswalt on 'The 1% Club'? Abrupt Departure, Explained

On the game show The 1% Club, contestants pit their knowledge against the general knowledge base of other Americans. They're asked questions that are increasingly difficult, as determined by a survey of average Americans. It starts with questions that approximately 90 percent of respondents answered correctly. Throughout 15 questions, they get more difficult, until the final question was answered correctly by only 1 percent of respondents, as the name suggests.

The academic brawl for the top was hosted by Patton Oswalt in the first season, which was produced on Amazon Prime in collaboration with Fox. However, Season 2, landing on June 10, 2025, came with some major changes.

Here's what we know about what happened to Patton and why Season 2 looks so different.

As host of The 1% Club, Patton was witty, quick, and the perfect foil to the contestants' frustration and daring do. So why is he completely MIA in Season 2?

Unfortunately, we don't know exactly why.

Although Season 1 was produced in collaboration between Amazon and Fox, Season 2 is solely produced by Fox. Patton was replaced by Joel McHale, who said of the opportunity to host the show, "I am 1,000,000 percent excited to be partnering with Fox to host The 1% Club." He added, "I absolutely love the show and love the gameplay to the 10𝑥 and guarantee my hair, makeup, and wardrobe will look great at least 68 percent of the time." (excerpt via The Sun).

It's not clear exactly why Patton made his exit, but when shows switch networks, they often shake things up. So it could be as simple as that.

On his Instagram, Patton seems to be focusing on his stand-up comedy career, so he's definitely staying busy.

Patton is perhaps best known for his comedy, but there was a time when he was making headlines for being raw, open, and honest about a particularly poignant loss: the loss of his first wife, Michelle McNamara, whom he married in 2005.

Michelle was a true crime writer who worked day and night to try to uncover the identity of the Golden State Killer. But working day and night to bring the gruesome killer to justice took its toll on Michelle, who took medication to try to get some rest in 2016. She never woke up.

Patton openly addressed the loss, admitting at one point that his daughter Alice is why he handled the loss with so much grace. He shared, "I would have just eaten to live and then would have drunk so that I didn’t feel anything anymore and then would have repeated it every single day. Having Alice was like: ‘I’ve got to get up, I’ve got to make breakfast, I got to take care of this little life'" (via The Guardian).

Patton wasn't done with love, though. He fell in love with actor Meredith Salenger, and the two wed in 2017. In an interview with NPR, Patton explained, "I was lucky enough to meet and fall in love and have someone as extraordinary as Michelle McNamara fall in love with me. And then — it's almost like getting hit by lightning twice, that the statistical odds are so insane — I met someone just as, if not even more, extraordinary in this woman Meredith Salenger and fell in love with her and got her to fall in love with me and to fall in love with Alice."

He compared Meredith to Mary Poppins, quoting Saving Mr. Banks when he said, "She's not there to save the children. She's there to save the husband."

Patton mused, "Because she is such a life force, it almost feels like she was put here to see if her level of life force could revive this death vibe that I was living in and pull me out of it." But she did it, he concluded in wonder, "seemingly effortlessly."

The two have been happily married since 2017, and Patton has been open about his experience in processing grief and moving forward.