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Guest host

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A guest host (or guest presenter in the United Kingdom) is a host, usually of a talk show, that hosts the program in lieu of the regular host if they fall ill, have another project or commitment, or are unable to host for some other reason.

Guest hosts may be seen as undesirable for a show's producer if they have to be used for an extended period of time, but if they do a well enough job, the guest host may often be able to parlay their run into their own talk show or other project.

History

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The Tonight Show

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This phrase was popularized on The Tonight Show during Johnny Carson's 30-year reign as host from 1962 to 1992. Toward the end of his tenure, Carson was granted more personal time off, and substitute hosts would be seen on the air more often.

Some guest hosts of The Tonight Show have gone on to host talk shows of their own. Jay Leno would eventually succeed Johnny Carson as The Tonight Show host; David Letterman went on to host Late Night with David Letterman in the time slot following Carson; Joan Rivers went on to host The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers on Fox; early Carson guest host Joey Bishop went on to host The Joey Bishop Show on rival ABC, and David Brenner hosted the short-lived Nightlife in the late-1980s. Richard Belzer hosted Hot Properties on the Lifetime network in the mid-1980s. Carson himself had earlier been a guest host on Tonight Starring Jack Paar.

The Late Show with David Letterman

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The Late Show with David Letterman featured several weeks of guest hosts substituting for David Letterman in 2000 when Letterman recovered from a quintuple bypass surgery and again in 2003 when he was recovering from shingles. The show also experimented in June 2003 with having guest hosts on Fridays but ceased doing so due to poor ratings. One of the guest hosts, Jimmy Fallon, went on to become host of both Late Night and The Tonight Show on NBC. The show also had guest hosts on a one-off basis in 2005 and 2007 when Letterman was unavailable.

The View

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The View first became popular with the guest host format in between the arrivals and departures of the program's youngest co-hosts, Debbie Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Although a variety of celebrities took turns in the chair, only the younger co-hosts were eligible for the job. During its tenth season, The View began featuring a guest host each day; regular Barbara Walters did not appear with anybody yet was considered eligible to replace Star Jones, who left the previous year. Following the departure of Rosie O'Donnell in 2007 the program looked to return to a panel of five women. The moderator role was given to comedian Whoopi Goldberg in August and Jones' role was given to actress and comedian Sherri Shepherd the week following Goldberg's debut. The View used the guest host format in place of Elisabeth Hasselbeck in 2009 while she was on maternity leave.

Jeopardy!

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Following the death of longtime host, Alex Trebek, in November 2020, Jeopardy! had a guest host format until a permanent host could be found. Those included past Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen, executive producer Mike Richards, television news personalities Katie Couric, Bill Whitaker, Savannah Guthrie, Sanjay Gupta, Anderson Cooper George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, talk show host Mehmet Oz, actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, Squawk on the Street co-host David Faber and ESPN broadcaster Joe Buck. Richards would be announced as the permanent host at season's end, with Bialik being taken on as a host for primetime tournaments airing on ABC. Michaels was soon fired due to past personal conduct issues and self-dealing allegations regarding his intervention making the host search pointless. As of the start of 2024, Jennings serves as the sole host for the syndicated daily version.

Jimmy Kimmel Live

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Of the current network late night talk shows, Jimmy Kimmel Live is the only program that has used guest hosts on a recurring basis. At the end of June 2020 and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jimmy Kimmel decided to take time off from his late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! in July and August 2020 to spend more time with his family and prepare for hosting the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards. He has since continued a break from hosting in those months before the start of the television season in September as a summer tradition, with guest hosts including Anthony Anderson and Chelsea Handler a part of the yearly rotation (except for 2023 due to the parallel WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, when the show was fully dark). Previously Kimmel has taken time off and had guest hosts as he dealt with personal health matters, including complications from the birth and development of his younger son.

On April 1, 2022, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live while Kimmel guest hosted the Tonight Show as an April Fools Joke.[1]

Kimmel employed guest hosts in the summer of 2024 while he was taking several months off, beginning in June 2024 when Martin Short guest hosted for a week. Anthony Anderson, Kathryn Hahn, Kumail Nanjiani, Lamorne Morris, Jeff Goldblum, RuPaul, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are also scheduled to substitute for Kimmel over the summer.[2]

Other guest host examples

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United Kingdom

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In the United Kingdom, some shows have guest presenters on a permanent basis. Have I Got News for You has used a different guest presenter for each show since Angus Deayton's departure in 2002. On The Jack Docherty Show in the late 1990s, Jack Docherty was absent so often that the show (retitled Not the Jack Docherty Show) more often than not had a fill-in. When Simon Amstell left his role on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, guest hosts took over the role to December 2013, not unlike a similar incident during Series 18.

Other uses

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  • The frequency of guest presenters on certain shows has been parodied by the Onion News Network's Clifford Banes character, who never presents his show for a variety of absurd reasons, and is always replaced by a guest presenter.
  • The main plot device of the ESPN Classic series Cheap Seats is that "tape librarians" Randy & Jason Sklar are guest hosting the series while the actual host Ron Parker (an in-universe parody of an overly vain SportsCenter anchor played by Michael Showalter) is rehabilitating from the collapse of tape shelving onto him in the show's pilot, a recovery that takes the entire series' four season, 79-episode run. The series' full title is facetiously Cheap Seats: Without Ron Parker.
  • Daytime syndicated talk shows of the 1960s and 1970s most often featured a celebrity guest hosting the show alongside the show's host—most notable of these is The Mike Douglas Show.
  • World Wrestling Entertainment had weekly guest hosts (either celebrities, WWE Hall of Famers and injured or retired wrestlers) as kayfabe bookers on their flagship show Monday Night Raw.

References

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  1. ^ "Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Swap Shows in Late-Night April Fools Trick". Variety. April 1, 2022. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  2. ^ Poole, Morgam (June 22, 2024). "Martin Short, Anthony Anderson, Hugh Jackman and more stars to guest host 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'". ABC 4. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
  3. ^ London, Rob (2023-01-05). "'The Daily Show' Guest Host Schedule Features Leslie Jones, Kal Penn, and Sarah Silverman". Collider. Retrieved 2023-01-25.

See also

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