I hail a cab from the corner of Broadway and West 73rd St., and the Russian-accented driver asks for my destination.

Just an average New York moment — but when I close the door, colorful lights dance across the roof, cheerful music blares and the driver drops the accent. “You’re in the Cash Cab!” he says. “It’s a TV game show that takes place right here in this taxi!”

In “Cash Cab,” hosted by comedian and licensed cab driver Ben Bailey — who’s won three Daytime Emmys (for “Outstanding Game Show Host”) — cab riders answer trivia questions for the chance to win small amounts of money. It’s part of a global franchise that originated in the UK in 2005. The US incarnation ran from 2005-2012 on Discovery — and, after five years off the air, returns to the network Dec. 4.

Bailey, 47, can be intimidating at a towering 6’6” but has an impish disposition. “I love making people repeat where they’re going,” he says. “You never see that on the show because they edit it out, but it’s really fun. Their head is about to explode because I ask their destination like 17 times, and then I hit the button [for the lights and music] and they go right to being happy.”

Bailey spent the five-year gap between the show’s return performing stand-up in comedy clubs, theaters, and colleges — but jokes that he’s also frequently mistaken for “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe. “It happens quite often,” he says. “I go right along with it and I say really offensive things to them. And I say, ‘That’s a message from me, Mike Rowe, to you.’”

Another common occurrence? People asking if anyone has ever vomited in the cab. “Surprisingly, no one has,” he says. “Once in a while you get someone who is a little disgruntled when they lose, but no release of bodily [fluids] happen on my watch.”

As he expertly weaves around a bus on 81st St., Bailey asks me rapid-fire trivia questions: “In 2011, what congressman’s cybersex scandal inspired the New York Post headline, ‘Battle of the Bulge?’” (I correctly answer “Anthony Weiner”). He says that he was happy to return to the cab. “The city changes so fast. I’ll have to learn it all again,” he says. “It’s very different than it was five years ago. When we were in the middle of [the show’s first run], if you told me an intersection, I could name two things around the corner from it.”

‘There are plenty of people still hailing cabs the good old fashioned way.’

Another major change that’s happened since “Cash Cab’s” initial run — the rise of ride-share services like Uber and Lyft. But Bailey is unconcerned about their potential impact for taking contestants away from the show. “I’ve thought about it and I’ve been watching,” he says. “And there are plenty of people still hailing cabs the good old fashioned way.”

There’s one slight change in the new version: celebrity guests like Matthew Perry will drop into the cab to help the contestants answer questions.

As Bailey drives, he pauses occasionally, listening to a microphone in his ear as his producer reads him the questions. Of all the trivial facts that he’s learned over the course of the show, he says his favorite is the fact that a dog was once sent to the moon: “He was nicknamed ‘Muttnick.’”

Bailey has lived in a wide range of places (Kentucky, California, New Jersey) but maintains that New York is the best city for “Cash Cab.” “I’d be happy to do it almost anywhere, really,” he says. “I always thought we can take it on the road — it’d be fun. We could go to different towns. But people don’t really hail cabs enough in too many other cities.”