What Sports Commentators would make good emcees?

[Dbacksfan12]

What sports commentators/analysits would make a good game show host?  I personally feel that Jim Rome would do an adqueate job, as well as Keith Olberman, Bob Ley, and John Madden.

Among those who would make horrible candidates include any announcer from the last series of NBA on NBC (Gary Johnson and company), any NASCAR annoucer, and NBC's current teams in other sports.

What do you guys think?

[aaron sica]

I think Gary Thorne would make a good game show host as well....He has that commanding voice, I can almost hear him saying something in a game-show-esque setting ("You need this question right to stay alive...")...

Yeah. If I hear Gary doing an NHL or college football game, I'll stop and watch.

As far as terrible ones, the two Jim twits (Jim Lampley and Jim Gray) would not do very well...

[DrBear]

I'm sorry, I'm just getting this picture of Marv Albert hosting Jeopardy....
Ken Jennings: "What is the Franco-Prussian Alliance?"
Marv: YESSS! And it counts!

[Don Howard]

Since we know Dick Enberg would be a good one, I'll pick another personal favorite: Dick Stockton. I've been a big fan of his since the days of The CBS Sports Spectacular.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Don Howard\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 07:26 AM\'] Since we know Dick Enberg would be a good one, I'll pick another personal favorite: Dick Stockton. I've been a big fan of his since the days of The CBS Sports Spectacular. [/quote]
 Ahmad Rashad did OK, but not spectacular as a host. It has been said Greg Gumbel was the best thing about the unsold pilot for the updated $64K Question CBS did in 2000.

[Ian Wallis]

Yeah. If I hear Gary doing an NHL or college football game, I'll stop and watch.

Considering there likely won't be an NHL season this year, maybe Gary should look for a game show to do

I agree...I've always enjoyed his work on the hockey telecasts.

[BrandonFG]

I know it asks for no one from NBC, but I always thought Bob Costas would make a decent host for something trivia related. I also think Keith Olbermann would make an excellent host. I could see him doing something like Millionaire. Dan Patrick is another choice.

[reason1024]

My vote goes to Kenny Mayne for best sportscaster / game show host.  I think his shot to break through to the Huge Time would be a vehicle like "The Wright Stuff" (a combination of Win Ben Stein's Money, Make Me Laugh, and The Chair).

Seriously, 2-Minute Drill was great and I'd like to see how he'd do in a different format.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Dsmith\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 01:03 AM\'] What do you guys think? [/quote]
 I think Jim Rome is a jackass who has no business having access to any sort of broadcasting device, much less the podium of a game show host, but I digress.

Olbermann. Man. How the mighty have fallen. Besides, he's not all that good of a reader. He'd be brutal in a speed round.

Ley is too low-key.

Madden would be crap. Utter crap. Madden does one thing very well, and that is show up at a football game and enjoy watching it, qnd his enthusiasm is infectious. Fortunately, when you are sitting next to Al Michaels, that's all the color job really entails.

Thorne has possibilities. The show would need to have a sports format, though...I wouldn't give him The All New Super Neato High Rollers. None of the contestans would be allowed to be named "Marcus", though, as he would keep calling them "Magnus".

(And Gary can afford to take a hockey season off, he does just fine calling the Mets games during baseball season, and likely he'll make some mad money doing college hoops and March Madness.)

Mayne was very good on 2-Minute Drill, but again, the show required an overly-dry-to-the-point-of-parody host, and that's Mayne all over.

My picks? Randy Hahn of the San Jose Sharks, and Charlie Simmer of the Phoenix Coyotes. Randy because I think he's very good and would have fun doing such a thing (although he's too short to be a game show host, the guy comes up to my chin), and Charlie because I would do just about anything to break up that broadcast team and not have to listen to them butcher another NHL game, like, ever.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 11:10 AM\'] (And Gary can afford to take a hockey season off, he does just fine calling the Mets games during baseball season, and likely he'll make some mad money doing college hoops and March Madness.)
 [/quote]
 Minor nitpick--Thorne lost the Mets gig last year.  Of late, his only baseball duties are on ESPN (primarily doing their Daygame package--which means he's probably slated to work ESPN's telecast of Cubs/Pirates tomorrow [of which those of me in Chicago get blacked out; which is unfortunate because I'm not the biggest fan of Chip Caray]).

So other than college football for ABC and a few baseball playoff games, he'll have a very quiet autumn (I think CBS and ESPN are pretty well set with their hoops announcers as well, although of course they could always adjust).

Doug

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 09:40 AM\'] I know it asks for no one from NBC [/quote]
 No, when I typed that, I just meant that I didn't think that any NBC commentators would make a quality emcee.

Mr. Lemon: My, how opinions differ.

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 12:10 PM\'] Olbermann. Man. How the mighty have fallen. Besides, he's not all that good of a reader. He'd be brutal in a speed round. [/quote]
 It's true that when my cats are in the room with me, the audience for MSNBC effectively doubles, but nevertheless, I think Keith's work on Countdown is the best thing he's done in his "serious newsman" career.  I also think he'd be a good game show host in the right vehicle.

Basically, any decent sports broadcaster would probably also make a decent game show host, again given the ever-elusive right "fit".  Historic experience would back this up.  I can think of lots of successful actors and comics who were horrid game show hosts, but you'll have a hard time finding top-of-their-game sportscasters who struggled with a game show.  The skills needed to excel in both are remarkably similar.

[sshuffield70]

Jimmy Cefalo wasn't that bad as a host.  He probably just had a bad show.

I was thinking maybe Ralph Strangis or Darryl Reaugh of the Dallas Stars broadcasts could make a good host.  Especially Strangis, since he's appeared on a game show long ago.....about two weeks before someone named Larsen showed up.

P. S.:  He won over $7000.

[johnnya2k3]

For our fellow Canadians still suffering from the withdrawl of their beloved hockey thanks to the NHL lockout...what about Brian Williams, Ron McLean, Chris Cuthbert, or even Don Cherry?

Jim Nantz would also be great as a game show host; and if he was alive today, Tom Mees. Dunno about Ernie Johnson, Al Michaels, Keith Jackson, or Brent Musburger (I can imagine Brent opening "Dream Job" with "You are looking LIVE!! as these 12 people are vying for fame and fortune as the next SportsCenter anchor!"). Chris Schenkel (who's now retired) would be boring back in the day.

Jonathan Allen

[Strikerz04]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' date=\'Sep 22 2004, 11:25 AM\']
[of which those of me in Chicago get blacked out; which is unfortunate because I'm not the biggest fan of Chip Caray]).


Doug [/quote]
 He seriously cannot be that bad? Sure, he's no Skip or even the Great Harry, but he does what he could....

and speaking of which, I think Grandfather Harry would do fine (albeit spells of drunkenness and 'Holy Cow' spiels would be mixed in, I presume). May I even suggest Ken "Hawk" Harrelson of the south side...he's a great announcer, and he'd be good enough to host a gameshow--even when he eliminates a contestant, he's exclaim: "you Gone!"