The longtime host reflects on the NBC game show’s milestone 100th episode and the more than $35 million it has given away

NEED TO KNOW

• Chris Hardwick tells PEOPLE he never could have predicted The Wall would reach 100 episodes when the NBC game show first began
• The host says he deliberately avoids learning contestants’ outcomes ahead of time so he can experience every win and loss alongside them
• The Wall celebrates its 100th episode Monday, Aug. 24, at 10 p.m. ET on NBC

Chris Hardwick knows how rare it is for a TV show to reach 100 episodes.

As NBC’s The Wall prepares to celebrate the milestone on Monday, Aug. 24, the longtime host tells PEOPLE that even after 10 years with the game show, he still can’t quite believe they made it this far.

“I don’t think anyone ever predicts that,” Hardwick says when asked if he could have imagined reaching 100 episodes while filming the very first one. “Just being a lifelong television nerd, even when I was a kid I knew that 100 episodes was like, ‘Oh my God, they made it,’ you know?”

Since its 2016 debut, The Wall has given away more than $35 million to contestants, helping families pay off debt, fund adoptions, support charitable causes, save family businesses and pursue lifelong dreams. The format has also expanded around the world, with more than 30 international versions produced.

“For us to have been able to do this for this many years and get to 100 episodes and give away … somewhere like over $35 million is pretty mind-blowing,” Hardwick says. “But you never think that when you’re minute one, episode 1, season 1.”

In fact, Hardwick says there was something about imagining that kind of longevity that almost felt like tempting fate.

“I think we as performers are always conditioned to never think that because it just feels like, oh, that’s bad luck,” he explains. “You can’t assume that— I mean, I knew right away that the show felt very special to me, but you just never know if people are going to watch or what’s going to happen. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to do the show this long.”

Part of what has kept the experience fresh for Hardwick is that after this many episodes, he still has no idea how any contestant’s story will end as it unfolds.

The host tells PEOPLE he intentionally stays in the dark about both the contestants and the outcome of their games until viewers see those moments play out on screen.

“I remember every moment because I don’t meet the contestants until you see it on the show,” he says. “They walk out, that’s when I meet them, and I don’t know what the ending is until they reveal it.”

“From the very beginning, I had said I don’t want to know because I want to be in it with the contestants,” he explains. “I want to be a part of that moment. It would feel weird if I knew. So I just don’t know.”

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That means Hardwick is guessing along with the audience — and, by his own admission, he’s usually wrong.

“I’m always standing in the background, and I pretty much never guess right what’s gonna happen,” he says. “I’ll go, ‘Oh, I’m sure they, you know, they must have signed it.’ They tear it up.”

“It’s just always that moment of like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” he continues. “So whatever you feel at home when you’re watching is so amplified when you’re right there in it with them.”

For Hardwick, those unpredictable outcomes have created what he describes as a “mosaic of emotions” across the show’s run.

“What I feel is a roller coaster, like a mosaic of emotions,” he says. “And every one, to me, feels a little bit different. No two episodes feel exactly the same.”

“I remember all of it because it’s an emotional game show,” he adds. “When I was growing up, we didn’t have emotional game shows. It’s just really interesting to me to see how much heart came out of this game show.”

That emotion will be front and center in the milestone episode, which features Ellie, a dance teacher from Arkansas who honored her late grandfather by baking 600 pies and raising more than $20,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She and her husband, Nick, will take on the Wall in hopes of walking away with a life-changing prize.

Despite watching countless contestants face the four-story Wall over the years, Hardwick isn’t convinced he would fare particularly well if the roles were reversed.

“I would never be out in front of the Wall. I would be answering,” he says, adding that his wife, model Lydia Hearst, would be better suited for the high-stakes decision-making. “My wife would be amazing because she just makes good decisions. She would know what to do.”

And when it comes to other reality competition shows, Hardwick isn’t much more confident. “I would be terrible at all of it,” he says when asked how he would fare on shows like Survivor or The Amazing Race. “I don’t have any good outdoor survival skills.”

“I think for me it’d be something more trivia-related, probably, than an event- or stunt-driven competition show,” he adds. “I’m not sure I would do very well at any of them.”

The Wall celebrates its 100th episode Monday, Aug. 24, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.

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