After making it to the finale of Nation’s Dumbest, Chase “Huddy” Hudson isn’t in a rush to do more reality TV — yet.
“I think I’ll take a beat until I sign on to the next one,” Hudson, 24, exclusively told Us ahead of the Fox show’s conclusion on Wednesday, September 16. “It doesn’t make me want to jump on doing more reality shows anytime soon.”
Hudson pointed out that he is also booked and busy in other avenues, adding, “With everything — with music, acting and with reality TV — you gotta make them miss you before they can have the chance of having you back.”
Hudson noted there were some offers he wouldn’t be able to say no to — but others would be easier to turn down.
“If I could join a [reality] TV show, I’d probably just do The Traitors. I think it is so cool. You sold me at the castle. That’s it. I don’t care about the rest,” he quipped. “No Special Forces for me. I don’t want to get these shoes dirty. They are brand new.”
The musician continued: “Dancing With the Stars would be cool. They told me that Fox loves me [after my time on Nation’s Dumbest], and I’m like, ‘You know what, humor me. I’d love to hear about Dancing With the Stars.’ I think it’d be cool.”
Nation’s Dumbest, which premiered in July, shows 12 celebrities competing against each other in classroom challenges to prove they are not the “nation’s dumbest” and “graduate” as early as possible. Hudson and Hilaria Baldwin made it to the finale after Anthony Michael Hall was eliminated in the semifinals.
The Fox game show marked a departure for Hudson, whose previous acting credits include the rom-com How to Lose a Popularity Contest.
“I like game shows. I actually think that that was fun, but I think that the stakes of the show were really gnarly,” he told Us. “Certain things — like balloons popping over my head — [were] not fun for me. I f***ing felt like I was having a heart attack. But it makes me want to do something like Family Feud.”
Hudson tried to make the most of his time on the show before the finale.
“I knew — until [people like Andrew Yang and Dr. Drew] were gone — that it wasn’t going to be easy to get off the show because you have people that are really smart and have been to college for eight-plus years and I never even had the chance to go to college,” he said. “That’s unfair in a lot of ways. … So I was like, ‘Damn, OK.’ I didn’t really know where I’d land, but I thought that I was going to get off somewhere midway through, and then after the halfway point, I tried really hard to get off, but that just wasn’t in the cards for me.”
Hudson pointed out that he struggled with the same issues on Nation’s Dumbest as he did in school, adding, “When I was a student, I was definitely, like, all over the place. I’m super ADHD, and I think that that plays a role in all of this as well. One of the things my mom pointed out — because she’s also ADHD — is it’s a lot easier for someone with ADHD to understand what the question is if it’s written out in front of them and they can read it. That’s something that we didn’t have on the TV show.”
The actor recalled feeling “underestimated” because of his book smarts as opposed to his real-world intelligence.
“I could have studied a lot harder, but I think that that just wasn’t where my brain was at. I had always been sort of, like, a visionary — and more of a creative person. One thing that the show really showed me and the world is where my knowledge had lied,” he continued. “For me, that was always music and fashion and culture and art. Being able to showcase that for everybody, it’s nice to show people who think that I wouldn’t know a lot about those things that I do care about it. Some people think that people in our industry are half-ass caring about these things that they really care about and really pay attention to.”
Hudson’s passion not only translated on Nation’s Dumbest but in his music as well. Five years after the release of his first album, he is preparing to debut a new record, “Somebody to Hate,” on Friday, September 18.
From emotional confessions to dance-floor anthems, this summer’s most anticipated albums promise something for every mood. Niall Horan and Olivia Rodrigo are pushing their sounds in unexpected directions, while legends like Madonna return with long-awaited new music. Add in rock anthems from The Pretty Reckless and The Rolling Stones, cinematic storytelling from Shaboozey and Role […]
“My sound has matured in a lot of ways, both sonically and lyrically. I know my approach now and I wanted to really understand and take the time with my voice and understand what pocket and range it sits in, what my sweet spot is, what my signature sound is and how I wanted to deliver it,” he explained. “I think for a lot of different artists, it comes in different ways, whether it’s ad libs or lyrical content. I wanted to find what that identity was for me. There’s a lot of identity within this that people can start to understand and see as like a signature Huddy sound, especially going forward. A lot of my music might obviously not be the exact same, but I think that there’s a lot of this and what there’s to look forward to in the future. It is new and it’s very fresh. It’s taking old ’90s and 2000s rock and making it sound new.”
Hudson also broke down the message behind the album’s title.
“It is just about growing up feeling like people had something against me. Whether it was on social media where they didn’t like me or they didn’t like my music or I felt like they had been trying to find a reason to not like me,” he recalled. “So I think this was sort of taking that power back. There’s a story line to all of it as well. Things that I’ve gone through throughout my life living in L.A. that have made me into the person that I am today. I wanted to open up and be vulnerable with people about my journey in a way that feels striking. When you see it at first, I think a lot of people saw the title and were like, ‘What? This is crazy.’ And I’m just like, ‘No, it’s not me being defensive that I am somebody to hate.’”
He concluded: “If people want to put that label onto me, I’ll wear it. I want not to convince you that I’m not somebody to hate but to show you an introspective look into who I am.”
Nation’s Dumbest concludes on Fox Wednesday, September 16, at 9 p.m. ET.
