Eric Stonestreet has new TV series. What about ‘Modern Family’ spinoff? Or Randy Reid?

For his latest prime-time series, Eric Stonestreet hosts a new reality series where the tiniest breeze could ruin a team’s meticulously crafted domino creation.

“I think people are going to be blown away with the intensity of the show,” Stonestreet says, “how much is riding on a single move in building these things.”

Stonestreet, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, hosts and is a producer of “Domino Masters,” debuting on Fox at 8 p.m. Wednesday, following the season premiere of “The Masked Singer.”

Over a wide-ranging half-hour phone interview, Stonestreet discussed his disappointment that a “Modern Family” spinoff isn’t happening and his love for the Kansas City Chiefs.

But he was mum on Major League Baseball’s lockout (which showed no signs of letting up at the time of this February interview) and its impact on the Kansas City Royals, of which he is a part-owner. “I yield all questions on that to John Sherman, who’s the principal owner and spokesperson for the Royals,” Stonestreet said.

“Domino Masters” pits four teams of three domino enthusiasts each against one another in themed domino building (then chain reaction toppling) challenges. In the premiere episode, two teams get sent home and two survive to advance in the tournament. The eventual winning team pockets $100,000.

Stonestreet interacts with three judges on the show: Super Bowl champ/art gallery owner Vernon Davis, actress/math book author Danica McKellar and chain reaction and domino artist Steve Price. (Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck narrates the dominoes falling, which Stonestreet kicks off with the catchphrase, “It’s topple time!”)

“I’ve always been interested in finding a good hosting gig that allowed me to interact with interesting, quirky, cool people,” says Stonestreet, who previously hosted the two-season ABC toy invention competition “The Toy Box” (2017). “I love people that are putting their passions on the line or skills on the line. So I’ve always been interested in that part of reality TV.”

Stonestreet, who has also lent his voice to “The Secret Life of Pets” movie franchise, says he passed on other hosting opportunities, but “Domino Masters” got his attention.

“I’m a big fan of chain reaction, Rube Goldberg and domino toppling stuff. I love watching those YouTube videos,” Stonestreet says. “And my fiancée’s (twin) boys were 9 when I showed them the video that they put together of the potential show, and they were immediately in and were hooked on the creativity, the engineering and just the sheer destruction of some of these builds.”

The domino effects

Stonestreet says “Domino Masters” was more of a grind to film than “Modern Family.” Each “Domino Masters” episode filmed over three days last June, some of which were 12-hour days (contestants have 16 hours total to complete their builds). While Stonestreet wasn’t on set every minute, he was sometimes hustled into the studio to film a reaction to something that had happened during the builds.

Some measures are taken to try to prevent everything toppling mid-build, Stonestreet says, including leaving gaps that aren’t filled in until right before the end of the build time.

It didn’t help that the show used a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport as its soundstage.

“It’s a whole thing of me standing up there just cracking up and joking, but also kind of not joking about like, ‘Really? This is the location we decided to use,’” Stonestreet says, laughing. “There’s the rumble of B-14 bombers coming in at 3 in the afternoon while we’re trying to shoot a TV show and it’s rattling the stage. Like, maybe that’s not the best place to shoot a show that’s a millimeter away from ruining 16 hours’ worth of work.”

To capture anything that might go horribly wrong — and Stonestreet says that some builds did collapse at inopportune times — the production had stationary cameras shooting down from the ceiling on each build platform 24 hours a day during production, even at night when contestants had gone home.

“You hope there’s not an earthquake — for a lot of reasons — but also so their hard work isn’t wasted and devastated,” Stonestreet says. “That’s the duality of the TV show: You want there to be that high drama and those issues but you also know that that can really screw up your TV show because you also want them to be very good and you want them to be beautifully built. You don’t, all of a sudden with one minute to go, want 5,000 dominoes to come crashing down.”

As for the stage, Stonestreet says if the show is renewed for a second season, some issues will need to be addressed, including the ventilation system.

“They were worried about the draft. Because the soundstage is cooled — that’s one of the reputations of soundstages: You keep them cool because you’re under excruciating lights — they’re gonna have to figure out how to get air conditioning in there that doesn’t blow down on the builds,” Stonestreet says. “They were definitely concerned about that throughout the show.”

From the title to the feats of engineering, Stonestreet acknowledges “Domino Masters” shares some DNA with Fox’s “Lego Masters,” but he thinks his show has unique elements, too.

“Hollywood is the most creative and the least creative town there is right? You originate and then you copy. You originate, then copy. But there are way bigger consequences on ‘Domino Masters’ than there are on ‘Lego Masters,’” Stonestreet says of the domino builds that can easily be spoiled. “There’s something way more dire that could happen on our show than on ‘Lego Masters.’”

What’s next?

Beyond “Domino Masters,” Stonestreet doesn’t have any other projects in the can.

There’s the possibility of something coming up that he hopes won’t conflict with the return of the live and in-person Big Slick Celebrity Weekend charity event June 24-25.

“Rob (Riggle) started a great thing there and it’s just good for Kansas City,” Stonestreet says. “I love how much they support it. There’s a chance that I’m going to be shooting something so I’m hoping that all works out and I’ll be able to be there.”

One project Stonesteet won’t be shooting anytime soon: a proposed “Modern Family” spinoff focused on Cam (Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). In the season finale, the couple and their kids were headed to Cam’s native Missouri, where he was set to coach college football.

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out with the studio and the network. They just felt like it was time to move on from their most successful TV show of the last 20 years,” Stonestreet says. That’s sort of a shock given how reboot- and sequel-happy Hollywood has become in the streaming era.

“I would imagine down the road, somebody will come up with an idea of where all of our characters are now. That seems reasonable,” Stonestreet says. “The way the show ended (in 2020), we all continued our lives. But it has to be as good as what we did for 11 years. We were very blessed with great writing, great acting, great producing, all of that. So we certainly wouldn’t want to come back to do something that wasn’t as good.”

Despite his engagement to Lindsay Schweitzer last summer, there are no wedding plans afoot.

“We’ve been together almost five years and truthfully I just got tired of referring to her as my girlfriend. It started to feel a little weird as a 50-year-old man, saying, ‘My girlfriend…’ so I needed to change her title and fiancée was the next one,” Stonestreet says. “I guess when we both get tired of me saying ‘fiancée’ then we’ll move to husband and wife.”

In the meantime, Stonestreet is past the disappointment of the Chiefs’ loss to the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game in January.

“We played a terrible half of football and we lost and now we have the off-season to get better. And now in Kansas City when we say, ‘There’s always next year,’ it’s really true,” he says. “It used to be like, ‘Well, you know, maybe?’ But now with Patrick Mahomes and the core talent we have, we’re gonna be contenders for a long time.”

Just don’t expect additional YouTube videos where Stonestreet plays Randy Reid, the supposed brother of Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

“I did one the (first) year we went to the Super Bowl and then took the pandemic year off and then (Chiefs general manager) Brett Veach was like, ‘Last time you were here we went to the Super Bowl, so we need to do another one,’” Stonestreet recalls.

“And so we did it and it didn’t work out. In my mind, that’s the end of Randy Reid. So I’m 1 and 1. I don’t want to risk being 1 and 2, so I think Randy Reid’s done, gone and I don’t want to be any part of jinxing any seasons.”

Freelance writer Rob Owen: RobOwenTV@gmail.com or on Facebook and Twitter as RobOwenTV.

This story was originally published March 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Eric Stonestreet has new TV series. What about ‘Modern Family’ spinoff? Or Randy Reid?."