Hosea Chanchez is one of the only actors to appear in all nine seasons of football dramedy \u201cThe Game\u201d as well as its revival on Paramount+. \u2026<\/b>
\nHosea Chanchez is one of the only actors to appear in all nine seasons of football dramedy \u201cThe Game\u201d as well as its revival on Paramount+. \u201cWendy Raquel Robinson I are the only two people that have done every single episode of the show from the inception to now,\u201d Chanchez,40, told The Post on the phone from Atlanta, where he\u2019s currently filming the show. \u201cIt really is a full circle moment for me in growth as an artist and as an actor.\u201d Now on Paramount+ (with new episodes out on Thursdays), \u201cThe Game\u201d follows a large cast of characters in the world of professional football. Among others, there\u2019s sports agent Tasha Mack (Robinson), her quarterback son Malik Wright (Chanchez), undrafted free agent Jamison Fields (Vaughn Hebron), and new character Colonel Ulysses S. Thatcher (Tim Daly). Set in Las Vegas (even though it\u2019s filming in Atlanta), the revival follows Tasha through her struggles to balance her family life with her professional life and Malik through mental health issues caused by head trauma due to his football career. \u201cThe biggest arc for Malik is dealing with mental health issues,\u201d said Chanchez. \u201cIn today\u2019s time after Covid, everybody understands what mental health is. I\u2019m excited about playing him in this way in these circumstances \u2014 because I too have learned a lot about the traumas that we\u2019re all experiencing today.\u201d \u201cThe Game\u201d originally premiered on the CW in 2006 before that network axed it in 2009 and it moved to BET from 2011-2015, where the Season 4 premiere drew in 7.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched sitcom premiere in cable history. \u201cWe\u2019ve always labeled it as the little engine that could,\u201d said Chanchez. \u201cThe odds were always against us, honestly. We were the only show [on the CW] that had an all-Black cast. There was \u2018Gossip Girl\u2019 and some other shows there at that time, but we were a fish out of water. We felt hidden a bit. I think we could have done more collectively to make the show more visible. The reason we know that to be true is because after we got cancelled on the CW, we became the highest rated sitcom in cable history. \u201cBut we never had a clean shot to just go. There was always an obstacle in the way the entire time. I feel like this is the first time we\u2019re not racing uphill. We\u2019re not trying to catch up or prove something. Now, we get an opportunity to just tell a story.\u201d Although TV revivals are a dime a dozen (others include \u201cSaved By the Bell\u201d on Peacock and \u201cWalker\u201d on The CW), Chanchez said that \u201cThe Game\u201d is especially positioned to be relevant today. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with the world of the NFL, and what\u2019s more American than football? The players are on the forefront of all of these things that we are experiencing with the fabric of our country. That\u2019s what makes the show so relatable. It\u2019s about the players but also their lives, their wives, and their partners at home.\u201d In addition to staring in the show, Chanchez is also a producer and will also direct at least one episode this season. \u201cI\u2019m a really fortunate guy to have this world support my dreams,\u201d he said. \u201cComing back to it as a producer, director, has really allowed me to grow as an actor and an artist all the way around. Because I built this house and I have a stake in it.\u201d<\/p>\n