Tough Hosting Jobs

[TimK2003]

I give a lot of cred to Tom Kennedy for his reading of clues on Whew!  Having to read questions that fast without stumbling in a game where literally every second is important for the contestant. 

[Jay Temple]

I\'m not going to say that TTTT is the toughest, but it does require an interesting combination of skills:

• interacting with the celebrity panelists


• having a persona that works well, although different hosts did well with very different personae


• reading the affidavit well (I\'ve seen enough bad scripture readings to appreciate the difficulty of finding someone with this skill.)


• asking interesting questions of the central character afterward

[BrandonFG]

And then there\'s knowing when to step out - Peter Marshall running the Squares, not as a funny man but as Mr. Setup.

To this I would add Match Game 7x. Gene knew how to run the show, let the stars shine, then reel them back in as needed. Along the same lines, ribbing the contestants\' awful answers or knowing the apparently \"definitive\" response was also important. That was something Michael Burger was unable to do as efficiently. Burger\'s still a great host on his other projects, but he never found that balance, showing that hosting was more than just letting celebrities display witty answers.

[Joe Mello]

For the record, Alex is good, but he\'s not that good. The reason it looks like he reads 61 clues \"flawlessly\" is because after each show, they re-record anything they aren\'t absolutely perfectly happy with.

At the taping I attended, there were maybe 3 redos between the 2 episodes.  He may not be perfect, but 98% is still pretty damn impressive.

[tidefan12]

The Barris-produced Treasure Hunt gets my vote.  For Geoff Edwards to have pulled off all that mass memorization for each episode so flawlessly is pretty impressive, especially with the 80\'s version being daily.  

[Steve Gavazzi]

Close.  The first taping week, they taped shows using a total of seven games - if I recall, four of the lineups were identical, and the other two had one game swap out for another (for less frequent stuff like Golden Road that they didn\'t want to play six times in a row).  They repeated this for four more weeks, then shuffled everything about on the air schedule so we didn\'t see repeating pricing games in a week on the air.

Fixed that for you. Drew\'s first season was still structured so that everything could be aired in order without any repeating games if they felt like it. The episode shuffling was CBS\'s doing, initially front-loading shows with a lot of wins (the first ten broadcasts included three perfect shows) and later just moving things around for no discernible reason. In fact, in a couple of cases when they shuffled episodes from the second set of repeating lineups in with the first, they actually caused games to repeat.

[chris319]

Hands down, LMAD, TH and Beat the Clock are much more difficult to emcee than TPIR. Lucky Seven is the same thing every time, whether you\'re doing it for the 7th time or the 107th time. BTC is not as hard as LMAD and TH because there are fewer conditionals. LMAD requires less memorization than TH. On LMAD, not only do you have to understand the game and how to explain it, but there\'s so much \"if the contestant picks this, reveal what\'s inside the box; if the contestant picks that, reveal what\'s behind the curtain\" to memorize. LMAD is also different each show and has new things much more frequently than TPIR.

 

TTTT, Dating Game, MG and even FF are dead-nuts simple. I\'ve seen Gene Wood emcee FF and there isn\'t that much to it. Charming the contestants, being witty and imitating W.C. Fields are separate skills from running the game. On MG, running the game is simple. Keeping a bunch of tipsy celebrities in line with good humor is likewise a separate skill from running the game.

 

I wonder how much help Wayne Brady gets on LMAD from Mr. Earpiece.

[Unrealtor]

I\'ve got to go with LMAD, too, for the reason of the huge potential variety in games and scenarios.

 

Charming the contestants, being witty and imitating W.C. Fields are separate skills from running the game. On MG, running the game is simple. Keeping a bunch of tipsy celebrities in line with good humor is likewise a separate skill from running the game.

 

I think the host\'s people skills do factor into in their overall ability to run the game for MG and other shows with a set full of potentially hammy celebrities, and on audience participation shows like TPIR, LMAD, and Treasure Hunt where your contestants are being asked to play the game while simultaneously having their \"Holy crap! I\'m going to be on national TV!\" adrenalin rush. On the other hand, there are some shows where the format is so simple and repetitive that the contestants could practically play the game themselves and all the host really has to do is prompt them when it\'s their turn to act. (Countdown comes to mind as the epitome of this; also Concentration and Wheel before every round had a different gimmick that had to be explained.) About the only thing that keeps Feud from being in that last category is the fact that Fast Money requires at least some ability to accurately read aloud when under time constraints.

[Craig Karlberg]

Good reading & memorization skills, as well as interaction with the focal characters of the game are one thing, but there\'s something else that sets shows like TPIR & LMAD aoart from others.  There\'s alwsys that possibility that something unexpected will happen & the host must be able to react quickly & promply without feeling dazed or confused.  On one TPIR episode, when the model was having all sorts of issues with the appliances, Barker made a quick witty comment & seemed to play off of it.  It\'s really not enough to have good knowledge of the rules & format of the game.  It\'s how you handle those unexpected events that might crop up.

[Neumms]

Chris, you\'ve worked with hosts, but let me play devil\'s advocate. What seems hard isn\'t reciting rules but getting the unprepared excited person to understand them without sucking away the excitement. 

 

TPIR seems harder than LMAD and Treasure Hunt to me because there\'s more game play. Rules of Lucky Seven are harder than anything on the other two. Not that they\'re chess, but they\'re less intuitive than \"money or curtain,\" and \"pick a number 1-30 and it doesn\'t really matter which one.\"

 

With LMAD, sure, deals can flow different ways, but the variables don\'t really change much. And heck, couldn\'t a stage hand point at which curtain to open?

 

On Treasure Hunt, Geoff was wonderful, but he didn\'t need the contestant to do much. The rest was \"Tony & Tina\'s Wedding.\" 

 

Maybe the reason Barker got better after the first few years may be that the contestants walked in knowing the drill better, the same reason Drew isn\'t more of a disaster. 

[CeleTheRef]

that\'s nothing. in Italy we have Avanti Un Altro!  which is like hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire except:

 

-every episode begins with your co-host\'s hit song \"Remember That You Must Die\". and that \"you\" is YOU!

-your \"lovely assistant\" is often the oldest or the stupidest person in the audience.

-you are randomly interrupted by annoying comedy characters.

-you are supposed to read some questions in a foreign language, with a Smurf cap on, or with cotton in your mouth.

-contestants want to pat your ass for good luck.

-\"Kama Sutra\" is a category. and guess who\'s demonstrating the positions?

 

and finally, the bonus round requires you to read at lightning speed

[MikeK]

-contestants want to pat your ass for good luck.

You say that like it\'s a bad thing.

[Mr. Armadillo]

 

Close.  The first taping week, they taped shows using a total of seven games - if I recall, four of the lineups were identical, and the other two had one game swap out for another (for less frequent stuff like Golden Road that they didn\'t want to play six times in a row).  They repeated this for four more weeks, then shuffled everything about on the air schedule so we didn\'t see repeating pricing games in a week on the air.

Fixed that for you. Drew\'s first season was still structured so that everything could be aired in order without any repeating games if they felt like it. The episode shuffling was CBS\'s doing, initially front-loading shows with a lot of wins (the first ten broadcasts included three perfect shows) and later just moving things around for no discernible reason. In fact, in a couple of cases when they shuffled episodes from the second set of repeating lineups in with the first, they actually caused games to repeat.

 

 

I was just saying that they weren\'t aired in tape order.  Whether they aired in the order they were intended to air or not is something I had forgotten about, and I reckon not very important for 99.999% of the viewing audience.

[Jeremy Nelson]

The Barris-produced Treasure Hunt gets my vote.  For Geoff Edwards to have pulled off all that mass memorization for each episode so flawlessly is pretty impressive, especially with the 80\'s version being daily.  

I know I\'ve heard this from various people, but I can\'t help but think there was a cue somewhere (small writing somewhere on the box, cue card out of contestant\'s sight, semaphore, etc.) that at least clued him in as to what kind of prize was in the box. If not though, kudos to him for having the skill to memorize that many boxes, especially on multiple show tape days.

[beatlefreak84]

I know I\'ve heard this from various people, but I can\'t help but think there was a cue somewhere (small writing somewhere on the box, cue card out of contestant\'s sight, semaphore, etc.) that at least clued him in as to what kind of prize was in the box. If not though, kudos to him for having the skill to memorize that many boxes, especially on multiple show tape days.

 

I remember, back in the ATGS days, Geoff was an occasional poster, and my brother and I, who had just watched a bunch of episodes, e-mailed him asking him about that.  He, first off, was extremely kind in responding to us, and said that, during the break between when the contestant picked her box and when he made the cash offer, he would go off-stage and be briefed on what the skit was/what was in the box.  There were no cue cards on set because, otherwise, the contestant could look and have the surprise spoiled.

 

If the check was in the box, he was simply told how much time he had to stall before showing the check. 

 

I wasn\'t sure if he was briefed before the show on all possibilities, or just briefed after a box was chosen, though.  Whether he had to memorize all of them or not, I still think he did a terrific job hosting that show.

 

Anthony