Spoilers ahead for the September 15 series premiere of Celebrity Weakest Link on Fox, available streaming next day with a Hulu subscription.
Jane Lynch regularly roasts contestants in episodes of The Weakest Link, and the series premiere of Celebrity Weakest Link in the 2025 TV schedule proved that famous players aren’t exempt from the shade either. Fox delivered something special to kick off the celebrity incarnation of the hit game show by recruiting no fewer than eight of Lynch’s former Glee costars to participate, and there were puns and in-jokes galore for any Glee fan to enjoy.
My favorite bits of the episode actually came very early on, however, with Lynch channeling her inner Sue Sylvester to roast an actor for looking pretty old when playing a teenager and another actor botching a very easy question. The cast members who participated were Max Adler (Karofsky), Becca Tobin (Kitty), Alex Newell (Unique), Chord Overstreet Sam), Heather Morris (Brittany), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Dot-Marie Jones (Coach Beast), and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina).
Max Adler Looked Too Old For High School
Given that this Glee reunion was on a game show for charity, Jane Lynch of course didn’t bring up the controversy surrounding Lea Michele on set or the passing of Naya Rivera, but instead poked mostly gentle fun at the series, including that time the characters did the “Gangnam Style” dance, every unfortunate time that Will Schuester rapped, and Max Adler as Dave Karofsky. Shortly before Adler was confirmed as the first Glee elimination of Celebrity Weakest Link, he had this exchange with the host:
- Jane Lynch: “Can I just say you were the oldest-looking junior in high school? I mean, you were like shaving two times a day back then.”
- Max Adler: “Oh yeah, they were filling in the bald spot. It was a whole thing.”
- Jane Lynch: “Well, I’m bored with this subject now.”
Admittedly, this wasn’t the most brutal roast in Weakest Link history (or delivered by Jane Lynch to a Glee cast member), but I just appreciate her saying what I always thought back in the day. Teen shows often cast actors who are already well out of high school so they can work full days, but Glee really didn’t seem to try to hard to find actors who could pass for 16-year-olds.
Now, Max Adler wasn’t actually the oldest actor to play a high schooler on Glee. Born in 1986, his first episode of the Fox hit aired in 2009, so he was 23 when he debuted as Dave Karofsky. Cory Monteith (who tragically died before turning 40), Mark Sailing, and Harry Shum Jr. were all born in 1982, while Diana Agron, Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Jenna Ushkowitz, and Becca Tobin were all born in ’86 like Adler. The Karofsky actor just wasn’t quite able to sell playing a high schooler was well as some of his costars.
Adler seemed to take the ribbing all in good fun, and appeared more annoyed that he was eliminated first after flubbing a Friday Night Lights question. At least he can take comfort in knowing that wasn’t the most memorable wrong answer of the Glee reunion episode of Celebrity Weakest Link!
Becca Tobin Is No Chicken Wing Expert
These contestants weren’t invited onto Celebrity Weakest Link for being culinary experts, but I think Becca Tobin’s attempt to answer a question about Buffalo wings will still go down as one of the funniest moments of the entire episode. Jane Lynch asked the actress this:
True or False: To be called Buffalo wings, they must contain at least 51 percent buffalo.
I initially thought that Tobin was lucky to get one of the easiest questions of the first round… until she responded with “True?” Jane Lynch looked like she was on the verge of a dropping a non-Fox-approved four-letter word in response, and Chord Overstreet and Dot-Marie Jones both had great reactions. Everybody had a good chuckle again when Lynch brought it up later, and I have to credit Tobin’s epically wrong answer for making me laugh out loud.
Becca Tobin flubbed another easy question in the next round, to the point that she even said “Oh my god!” at herself for getting it wrong. Like Max Adler, she took it in good fun when she got some heat for not knowing that Buffalo wings are 100% chicken and 0% chicken, and Amber Riley went on to win the episode. This continued her streak of doing well on TV competitions, after winning Dancing with the Stars Season 17 back in 2013 and The Masked Singer Season 8 in 2022, which she described as “such an invaluable experience.”
If you missed the episode and want to check it out or now are in the mood to watch these stars back in their Glee days, you can find both shows streaming with a Hulu subscription as well as Glee via a Disney+ subscription.
