• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Hosting a News Show and a Game Show

  • Thread starter CentralFloridaEagle
  • Start date

C

CentralFloridaEagle

Guest
Watching the beginning of the "Today" show this morning, Meridith Viera mentioned she had taken a couple of days off late last week as she was wrapping up "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and said "down to one job now" (or something similar). Was dropping "Millionaire" part of her deal to be hired for "Today"? There is precedence for such double duty, as Hugh Downs during the early/mid 1960s was primary host of "Today" with Barbara Walters while at the same time hosting the game show "Concentration".

And...did anyone win the million bucks during her time as host?
 
She didn't drop Millionaire--it just wrapped up taping for the season. She still has a year left on the contract, I think.
 
Oh, and she has had at least two million dollar winners that I can recall.
 
I heard that Millionaire just sold rights to the show. This just may be for the nighttime version though since ABC pretty much gave it up. Either way it could possibly mean that the show won't be back in the FALL. I'm not clear on this.
 
When the NBC deal was announced, she vanished from the promo tails that aired on WABC
 
It's not surprising some ABC stations would cut down on promoting her too much, but the show has been on all types of affiliates, so there's no reason she couldn't continue just because of having the Today gig. It would seem to be more a factor of her schedule and desire to hold down both jobs.
 
In my mind, there's nothing inherently wrong with a news person hosting a game show. Yeah, you could say it's undignified, but that's a bit elitist.

To me there's only a problem if the game show requires the host to do ads for products or requires them to lie to the contestants. Viera quit doing commercials when she got the Today show job. I don't see that questioning a guest and revealing answers does any particular damage to Viera's credibilty as a journalist.
 
Why not just give 100% to The Today Show and let some qualified, out of work, host take the game show? Add more jobs! Like trying to be Eddie Murphy and do all the roles. There are others actors out there that could use the work!
 
There's nothing wrong with what Meredith is doing. She does a fine job on both shows and personally I put her ahead of Regis when it comes to hosting "Millionaire".
 
Don't forget the trailblazer for hosting a game show while being a network news anchor. John Charles Daly was the principal anchor on ABC during much of the '50's, and at the same time, he hosted "What's My Line"---on CBS, to boot.
 
MACK184 said:
Mike Wallace was known for doing TV news, game shows and even commercials at the same time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, in the days before journalistic ethics took over. Since most early network shows were effectively "bought" by the sponsors, it happened. Didn't Edward R. Murrow - the paragon of jouranlistic integrity - read sponsor cards during his news shows? John Cameron Swayze read the news during Camel News Caravan and up through the 1970s, WFIE-14-Evansville had sponsor cards prominently displayed on the news desk - things that are now considered verboten.

Not long ago, Good Morning America refused to air commercials for Jergens or Vaseline Intensive Care body lotion (I honestly don't remember which brand) featuring then co-host Joan Lunden, even though GMA (at the time) was produced by the entertainment division, not ABC News, and Lunden was not beholden to ABC News' ethics guidelines. Though, in retrospect, this was likely one of the reasons behind the mid-90s shift from ABC Entertainment to ABC News.

A few years back, after the attempt by WMAQ to re-legitimize Jerry Springer (whose show, at the point, was at the pinnacle of bad taste and on-air punches) by making him a "news commentator" (resulting the subesquent on-air resignation of anchors Ron Magers and Carol Marin) backfired, he appeared on the Late Late Show with Tom Snyder to complain about his ill-treatment by the anchors.

Snyder defended him saying that during his (Snyder's) early days on TV he frequently went from commecial pitchman to talk show host to news anchor. This defense did (and continues to) irk me because it missed the point behind Marin and Magers' resignation. It was the fact that The Jerry Springer Show was (and continues to be) a total trash-talk talk show with little-to-no redeeming social value. If it were a straight-up talk show (even of the Oprah/Montel variety) there wouldn't have been near the ruckus raised.
 
Wallace was more of an entertainer in the 50s - one game show even billed him as a "Broadway producer." He didn't do that well at it, apparently, and started doing his "Night Beat" interview show where he got his rep as a tough-guy interviewer. It was only after his son's death that he dedicated himself to journalism.
 
I think the medium's "ripe" for a fresh new game show if only
somebody could come up with a good idea and a charismatic
host.
 
stefanokills said:
I think the medium's "ripe" for a fresh new game show if only
somebody could come up with a good idea and a charismatic
host.
Click to expand...

It's possible that's already happening--we'll have to see how Let's Play Crosswords does, but it sounds promising, with a fresh new host.
 
Charles1 said:
Don't forget the trailblazer for hosting a game show while being a network news anchor. John Charles Daly was the principal anchor on ABC during much of the '50's, and at the same time, he hosted "What's My Line"---on CBS, to boot.
Click to expand...

Douglas Edwards, CBS's pioneering anchor, was host of "Masquerade Party"
(also on CBS) in 1953, and I believe NBC's John Cameron Swayze was host
of "Who Said That" (on NBC) from 1951-55. And don't forget that Walter
Cronkite, although working for CBS News but not yet the symbol of it, was
host of "It's News To Me" (previously hosted for three years by Daly) in 1954.
 
The late Jim O'Brien hosted a game show or two on a local Philadelphia station, as well as the morning weather guy, and a radio show.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom