[quote name=\'Otm Shank\' post=\'239915\' date=\'Apr 24 2010, 08:40 AM\']Format of the show is not relevant to the talent[/quote]It absolutely is. Which genius thought that Monty Hall would be a good host for Split Second? He's awesome when he has a crowd of people and a free-form format to work with, but when it came to just reading questions, it was awful
On the other hand, Tom Kennedy could take anything you threw at it and host it with excitement and a fervor that didn't look forced. Alex Trebek is known for being the no-nonsense host of Jeopardy!, but his turn as host of Concentration showed that he was able to have a good time, joke around and to not need to be a stuffy all the time.
Dismissing the format as not relevant is silly at best, and set-up-for-abject-fail at worst.
The question basically parses down to "who is the undiscovered talent?" The problem is that they're undiscovered. There's a reason that Frank Caliendo's Hot Streak isn't going into the tenth year on TBS or why the host of your local afternoon independent station's cartoon/live-action block isn't hosting Card Sharks 2010.
I think that Dave Niehaus is one of the greatest radio PBP guys in the history of Western Civilization. I get chills when Steve Raible's call of "Touchdown Seahawks!" is spread over Pugetopia's airwaves. But I wouldn't say that makes them good game show hosts. Just because I like listening to a pair of local pundits doesn't mean they ought to be hosts of Red vs. Blue: The Game Show.
And so on. The reason they haven't hosted a game show is probably because they wouldn't be good at it. (I note with a bit of amusement that one of our local weathermens hosted a local weekly Casino Night game show, and wasn't terrible at it, perpetuating the meme of the weatherman as game show host. But I wouldn't have him hosting Blockbusters or anything.)
[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'239933\' date=\'Apr 24 2010, 02:39 PM\']Two I always thought could work were Keith Olbermann (probably a tougher trivia game...would love to see him do a week of Millionaire) or Dan Patrick.[/quote]A while ago back when H2 was on GSN, there was a week of episodes with Keith Olbermann, and he was really good. I liked Sports Keith. But when he became Ranting MSNBC Keith, any liking just went out the window. No joy. He might be awesome as a host (aside from the possibility that we might have the Worst Answer in the World every day before the credit roll) but I could not bring myself to watch.
/Ditto with "Your host of Home Run Derby: Barry Bonds!"
