This Travel Game Takes Connect Four to the Extreme

Connecting four western US states with a straight line isn’t hard to do on a map: many of them are already in a square grid, letting an easy vertical be drawn from Kansas to the Dakotas or a horizontal from Kansas to Nevada, for example. But completing that same challenge on the ground, using rental cars, last-minute flights, and a $5,000 budget is a lot harder—and that’s not even considering that your opponents might steal a state from under you. Welcome to Jet Lag: The Game, what might be the world’s largest Connect Four game ever constructed.

Developed by Wendover Productions, the first season of this state-hopping game show aired last month on YouTube and Nebula, with a second season of international proportions dropping June 29th on Nebula. The show starts as a race in Colorado and doesn’t cease in its energy throughout the next three days of travel, as two teams of two travel to state capitals to complete challenges to claim a state as theirs before rushing on to the next. To keep this interview spoiler-free, we won’t dive into the twists and escapades pulled throughout the series (or in the second season), but they’re hilarious and often use logistical or geographical skills I’ve never seen in game shows.

Wendover Productions founder Sam Denby has been working for months with Jet Lag cocreators Ben Doyle and Adam Chase on creating a game show for streaming. Denby sat down with WIRED to discuss developing a travel series with carbon offsetts, shooting an entire show with iPhone 13 Pros, and flipping the Amazing Race techniques on their head. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.