Another Three “Price” Host Front Runners?

16 Apr

Posted by Alex Davis as CBS, Host, The Price is Right

I’m getting a bit sick of all of these The Price is Right front-runner-for-host stories. However, could this one be true? Hollywood Reporter is saying that Mark Steines of Entertainment Tonight, George Hamilton, and Todd Newton are the top three candidates right now. It is being said that all the other candidates, including my pick of John O’Hurley (Yes, he can do both Family Feud and Price at the same time), had their options as host expire on Friday with the aforementioned three being picked up. Don’t expect an answer anytime soon, because quite frankly we don’t know when we’ll hear either. Of the choices, I’d go with Mark Steines. I don’t think he’d do a bad job to be honest. It’s going to be a sad day for me if Todd Newton gets the job. I really have no opinion one way or the other about George Hamilton. OK, another time to ask you all yet again: Steines, Hamilton, or Newton: Who gets the job and who deserves it?

Thanks to David Sorrell for the heads up on the article.

20 Responses

Erskine Thompson
1
April 16th, 2007 at 9:05 am

Are there that many people who know who Mark Steines is? I have never HEARD of the guy. I ask because to put someone with no name recognition AND no game show experience on a show as difficult to host as “The Price is Right” would be a death knell for the show. For that reason alone, I’d rather see Todd Newton do it. Yeah, he’s kind of a dork, but he’s all about excitement, and has done the Atlantic City version of the show long enough that learning a few new games wouldn’t be hard for him. Plus, he has the experience to help him along. Hamilton would probably be fine, but he’s not a young man, and might not have many years in him hosting a show like this.

The big question is, how much longer do the producers expect the show to last after Bob leaves, regardless of who takes over?
myke25
2
April 16th, 2007 at 10:03 am

I’d go for the Todd, too. He’s got the game show chops and knows the mechanics of the show. Too bad about John O’Hurley not getting picked up…he was my top choice, too. The old ladies who watch TPIR would love him and the college age crowd would remember him from Seinfeld.
Antonio
3
April 16th, 2007 at 10:48 am

Erskine,

Mark Steines host Entertainment Tonight with a few other if you would of know that…

My pick is not their so I’ll do with Todd Newton because he knows TPIR the best from hosting TPIR Live plus he’s still young so that will help big time…
Stephanie
4
April 16th, 2007 at 11:44 am

My pick never got to try out, but I’m elated that Todd is still in the running! I’d really love to see him become the next host, he will bring youth and experience to the show and take it to a whole new level. I think he will be a great chemistry match for Rich, who will resume his duties behind the mic.

Makes me want to take a trip out to LA to see the show next year!
Mark
5
April 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm

Todd is awkward and annoying, and has a terrible voice. I haven’t watched Price is a very long time, but if he got the job, I’d be really upset. Of those three, I’d actually like to see George Hamilton. He’s reinvented himself and reminds me a lot of Bob Barker. I’d at least occasionally tune in to see him host.
Jeff
6
April 16th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

Todd also has no name recognition, outside of the hardcore game show fans. Sure he has game show experience, but hosting Price takes more then having game show experience. It requires personality and the ability to bring the best out of contestants. I haven’t seen Todd host the live version, but of the other games I have seen him host, I think he needs to interact more with the contestants, making them the stars of the show, more then he has previously.
John
7
April 16th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

I come back to my original choice of Todd Newton. He’s personable, easily liked, and has the PASSION for learning the games and maintaining the show in its origianl form. This guy has been a student of game shows for a long time. He graciously took the back seat when Ricki Lake was chosen to host Game Show Marathon (BTW - anyone know if that is coming back this summer?) and did the “man on the road” segments and did an okay job with that while we had to continually listen to Ricki screaming at the top of her lungs. I’ve seen him host the Atlantic City TPIR Stage Show and he was awesome. In fact, the second time was noticeably different as I thought he really tried to interact more with the contestants. I believe Todd New ton has the appeal CBS needs to keep the show going. He can easily relate to college students, middle America, and older people will love him. Little old ladies will want to pinch his cheeks and he will root for the contestants to win. Kudos for CBS taking a long time with their decision.

Just one note about Mark Steines. I like the guy on ET and in many respects he would have a great appeal but I don’t see how no game show experience gets you to the front of the line with American’s longest running game show. And if he is going to get the job, then Mary Hart and Jann Carl better model a new car!
Kevin C.
8
April 16th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

Honestly, out of the three remaining, Todd Newton is the best choice. He has game show experience (unlike Hamilton and Steines). I don’t think Hamilton would be very entertaining as a host for TPIR, and I don’t really watch ET so I don’t know anything about Steines. He also has done the TPIR Live shows around the country so he should know something about the pricing games. While the show will not be the same when Barker leaves (no matter who “attempts” to take his place), there are many hosts who would be worse than Newton. (Could you imagine if Dylan Lane jumped ship from “Chain Reaction”?)

As far as Game Show Marathon goes, I hope they don’t bring it back. Seeing Ricki Lake hosting made me think about how many former hosts/announcers of the shows portrayed were rolling in their graves: Gene Rayburn (for Match Game), Rod Roddy and Johnny Olson )for Price is Right), Peter Tomarken and Roddy again (for Press Your Luck), Bud Collyer (for Beat the Clock), Ray Combs and Gene Wood (for Family Feud), and the list would continue. If they did bring it back, they should find a new host.
JohnGoodman
9
April 16th, 2007 at 3:55 pm

Anything but Newton. He’s every lame stereotype of a game show host rolled into one.
glenn
10
April 16th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

I would have brought back doug davidson personally…but he really wasnt in the running despite having expirience running TPIR and still having not just name appeal but CBS appeal from his soap work.

Hamilton, ugg if they went that route id go with o hurley, really those two are starting to become indistinguishable (and for the record I think O Hurley is way too over the top and camp for TPIR, that kind of wildness is much more suited to
Feud) Never was a george hamilton fan although he does have the most star appeal of the lot.

I like Newton but I do hear the concerns about his lack of star power and going back to host switches Name recoginition does better than no name guys who are good hosts…the only exception being Pat Sajak, really.

Bill Cullen on TJW was a disaster structurally but it kept the show going 2 more years on his name.

Meanwhile Jim Caldwell was an absloute BOMB despite being a good host and less cheesy than the Winker.

Richard Karn saved what people thought was a sinking Family Feud, helping it get better timeslots and clearances.

Hell Bringing back dawson, despite only lasting a year actually spiked FF’s ratings huge until it kept getting Preempted for OJ and the weaknesses of the format changes became exposed.

Stynes maybe the happy medium IF he knows the PGs well enough…which was Bob’s Major concern…cutting back on the number of games to help the host is DOOM for a show like TPIR (See: Davidson’s version or better yet, Bob Hilton on LMAD where the same skits were done over and over)

That being said I dont see TPIR lasting more than a year or two after bob leaves…although I could be wrong…Remember one other thing…Barker was VERY established when he came to TPIR coming off of Truth or Consequences and outran a past his star power dennis james. If he is well drilled in the games, stynes would be the good pick but I’m still going with newton, hes the most expirienced and would have the best impact on the games themselves and that part was slipping bad in the past 8 years.
Intelligentfan777
11
April 16th, 2007 at 6:07 pm

You know, the television industry as a whole does have a record of success of certain people taking over for hosts who made the shows legendary. One obvious example is The Tonight show. Carson was there for 30+ years before retiring and Leno has done a bang-up job since. In game shows you have Ray Combs replacing Dawson on the 1988-1994 Feud, and there are many other examples, too. I think the main reason is because a show has been around for so long, and is so established, that it actually “transcends”, if you will, the host. In other words, as long as the person knows the game and does a good job, a show will, not only survive, but thrive!

It’s a very valid way looking at things.
davec
12
April 16th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

If777 has a good point.

TPIR transcends talking about this as just a “Game show” discussion, since TPIR is such a unique case, being the only daytime network run gameshow for about 15 years now (what was the last one, was it the Match Game revival on ABC?).

Other examples of if777’s point is many news programs (Meet the Press, Sunday Morning, Nightline), although the “news” might be considered the “main part” of those shows, but, some of them had some long time hosts.

And bringing up Combs Feud, you have to bring up the fact that the current Feud has gone through 3 hosts and is still around.
davec
13
April 16th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

I did a little research, and NBC had scrabble return January 18 to June 11, 1993

I really can’t remember a network daytime gameshow running after that, other than TPIR. Am I missing any?
JohnGoodman
14
April 16th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

^Ceaser’s Challenge with Ahmad Rashad was on NBC daytime from 1993-1994
davec
15
April 16th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

Thanks JG.

According to wikipedia, it is the last network daytime gameshow other than TPIR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesars_Challenge
Michael
16
April 16th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

After watching “Game show marathon” last summer and seeing what a better job Newton did than Ricki Lake (why didn’t he host PYL when it came up?) and considering that he has done this show in Atlantic City, Todd Newton is for sure the person I would chose to host TPIR. Don’t get me wrong, he was good on Whammy, but GSN just butchered the show and gave him nothing to work with! I mean, what was the deal with round 1?! Anyway, I digress…..CBS has not butchered TPIR like GSN did with Whammy (other than That’s Too Much…has anybody even won that game this year?) I hope he is the man but if it somebody else, let’s give that person a fair chance to see how they do. Go Todd!
Michael
17
April 16th, 2007 at 10:05 pm

What ever happend to Rich Fields in this discussion? Do anybody ever think that maybe Fields didn’t need to do a host audition seeing that he’s seen Bob and has a good idea on what he has done? Maybe he’s the unmentioned wild card in all of this. Hmmmm………….
Marc Power
18
April 17th, 2007 at 6:26 am

Todd Newton, just for the experience factor. Like it’s been said TPIR is probably one of the toughest shows to do and you need a veteran host.
Stephanie
19
April 17th, 2007 at 5:02 pm

You know something, Michael (#17)? You could be right, perhaps Rich didn’t really need an audition and could be the unmentioned wild card. Anything can happen between now and the time CBS makes the official announcement, so let’s sit back and enjoy the ride
Greg
20
April 28th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

Todd Newton did the DVD game, too.