“The Floor” is back on FOX for a third season. Good news to the 100 players, the “Time Boost” is still in play, and the biggest “whale” of the night can still win $20,000. This is a continual feature from game to game that does not reset. That means if a contestant is in the lead the previous night and remains the same the next night, they win an additional $20,000.  One celebrity player did just that in the third episode. 

The “Time Boost” feature remains in the game play that allows a player after winning three duels in a row to earn an extra five seconds.  This can be used in a future duel.  The number of players this season, like last season started off with 100 players.  By the end of the third episode, only 75 contestants remain who are playing for the grand prize of $250,000.

CELEBRITY PLAYERS:

THE FLOOR Pictured (l-r): Logan vs. Brian O’Halloran (“Clerks”) PHOTO CR/ Lorraine O’Sullivan / FOX. ©2025 FOX Media LLC.

What’s new this season is that the game show has added some celebrity players to the pool. They include ‘Bachelor Nation’ couple Mari and Kenny, Brian from the classic 90s’ film “Clerks.” For the first time in “The Floor” history, there’s a mother/daughter competing, Brianna, age 29, and her mom Benedetta. Host, Rob Lowe suggested a possible duel between the mom and daughter. SPOILER: Brianna ended up dueling one of the celebrity contestants!

It seems so far, a great strategy this season has been for contestants to call each other out on their inherited categories. We’ve seen this happen in the first two episodes. Brian from “Clerks” (category “Convenience Store Items”) completely crushed Logan in her inherited category of “Classic Films.” After that duel, Brian was up nine pieces of the floor and a Time Boost. When he went back to the floor and the Randomizer didn’t come near him, Brian also won the $20,000 of the night.

Before that, NOT an inherited category, Carolyne fell apart after not being able to defend her original category of “Female Country Singers.” A Harlem Globetrotter basketball player, Jahmani, is also on “The Floor” this season with the appropriate category of “College Basketball.” He was selected by the Randomizer after Brian’s big win in episode two. He chose to duel Brianna, who’s mom is also on the floor. Jahmani challenged her category of “Breakfast,” and lost.

Unfortunately, soon after Brianna won her Breakfast duel, she lost out to the “Black-and-White” category held by Nick by one second! He inherited her inherited category of “College Basketball” and went back to the floor.

NEW TO THE FLOOR:

Right before Garrett, whose category is “Hunting and Camping,” dueled Mike in his inherited category of “Islands,” Lowe announced that their duel would be a new feature added to the game, called “Association Duel.” That means they were shown three clues first that helped the contestants solve the answers. This was possibly the toughest duel so far in the series.

In the “Association Duel,” contestants are shown three words as clues, one at a time, that is associated with the island that the answer is. For example, Rihanna was one of the clues for Barbados. Several players on the floor were seen cringing because they knew it, but a dueling opponent did not.

THE FLOOR, Pictured: Garrett and Mike duel in new “Association Duel.” FOX

An Olympian diver, Kent was challenged to a duel by a former Junior Olympics Ice Skater with the category of “Domesday Prep.” She lost her duel with Kent, and he decided to go back to the floor. Just seconds later, the new challenger, Marc, with original “Star Trek” category, was one of his neighbors, and keeping with the strategy of challenging a newly inherited category, Kent was called right back up for another duel.

NOT The Full Answer!

The powers that be, took the answer of “cell phone” for the correct answer of “satellite phone.” But, buzzed Kent out of the game when he said “hammer” for the right answer of “sledge hammer.” This may have been because ultimately, it didn’t matter because he was out of time. But, many viewers have pointed this out in previous seasons, and the half answers of sometimes being accepted and not other times, has happened even more this season.  And we’re only on episode three!

The Olympian got outplayed by Marc. Then Marc got screwed by the game when he answered “peppers” for “Banana Peppers” that cost him the duel against “Sandwiches” category held by Michael. For some reason, they did not accept “peppers,” for the answer given by Marc, with 13 seconds left at the time. Michael won that duel because of it. And, then….

IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

Now holding the “Star Trek” category after beating Marc, Michael decided to go back to the floor. “TV Chefs” category was chosen by the Randomizer next, which is held by Steven. He went against the “Airport Codes” category inherited by the much beloved contestant Laura. Laura downplayed how much she knew about Airport Codes and said she hadn’t had that much time to study the category. But, viewers later found out from co-contestant Brian, that Laura is “well traveled.”

Laura held her own pretty well until she didn’t realize it was her turn in the middle of her Duel. Luckily, other contestants on the floor called out to her. Unfortunately, she lost her duel. Steven went back to the floor. And, we saw a lot of this throughout episode three which made it lack-luster. Players either won only one piece of the floor (along with the one they already had), or were eliminated.

When the Randomizer chose Mark with the “Fortune 500” category, he challenged “Electronics” held by Brain. The problem was, that although Brian is a retired FBI Special Agent, his electronics technology knowledge was nowhere close to what was needed to win this duel.  Mark, with his “Fortune 500” category went back to the floor…..boring!

Then the Randomizer chose half of the “Bachelor in Paradise” couple, Kenny, who challenged Erik to a “Rapper” duel. After losing his Duel, Kenny’s advice to his wife Mari was to “just win.” The Randomizer was activated for the final time of the night, and it left Brain unscathed. Thus, allowing him to win another $20,000 due to his remaining to have the biggest part of the floor.

THE FLOOR: Pictured: Kenny from “Bachelor in Paradise.” PHOTO CR/ Lorraine O’Sullivan / FOX. ©2025 FOX Media LLC.

The last duel of the night was “Sports MVP” duel by Terry and Seth. We saw Seth also not realizing it was his turn in this duel. Then when he caught-on, he was stumped by who the athlete was. Thus, he lost his duel against Terry.  We would love to see a producer add a light that flashes next to the monitor screens that contestants have to look at to let them know when it’s still their turn!

NEXT WEEK: A “game changing twist” will be introduced in next week’s episode. “The Floor” airs Wednesdays at 9/8 c on FOX. Also available to stream on Hulu the next day.