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Randy D

Ken Jennings is a former contestant of a TV game show who now hosts that show (following the events after the death of Alex Trebek).

Who are some other former radio or TV game show contestants who later became hosts of game shows?
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Posted - October 27, 2022
Tags : None

Responses


  • 11092
    If I  recall correctly, Vanna White was once a contestant on The Price is Right.
      October 27, 2022 10:12 AM MDT
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  • 53526

     

     Thank you, I did not know that.

      
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      October 27, 2022 10:19 AM MDT
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  • 34440
    Simon Cowell was on Sale of the Century 

    Richard Dawson was on The Dating Game. 
      October 27, 2022 4:06 PM MDT
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  • 53526

     

      Did Simon Cowell ever host a game show? (I ask because I’m unaware of his background. The various talent-related and reality TV shows he’s done are not game shows.)
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      October 27, 2022 5:10 PM MDT
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  • 34440
    If you do not count the reality talent game shows, no he did not host. 
    But he did create a traditional game show, "Red or Black?," in the UK. 
      October 28, 2022 6:39 AM MDT
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  • 53526

    So it appears that even you agree that the bottom line is Simon Cowell is eliminated from consideration. Neither reality shows nor being the creator of anything is part of what is being asked for in the question. Thank you.
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      October 28, 2022 7:01 AM MDT
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  • 880
      October 28, 2022 12:25 AM MDT
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  • 844
    Phyllis Diller was a contestant on the original You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzT46uTQ0s

    She didn't become a game show host but she did become a panelist on the Match Game (Gene Rayburn host) and Hollywood Squares (Peter Marshall host).
    phyllis diller from walkoffame.com
      February 24, 2023 8:07 PM MST
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  • 3719
    BBC Radio Four's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue:

    Jack Dee moved very smoothly from contestant (using the term loosely as I'll explain) to Chair following the death of the long-time Chairman, the jazz-musician, jazz-club owner and broadcaster, Humphrey Littleton.

    "Loosely" because this show's by-line is The Antidote To Panel Games; in which the contestants "are given silly things to do by the Chairman, Jack Dee". 

    Its series are placed in the 6:30pm comedy slot, and it utterly satirises the panel game-show format. It's not a genuine contest: the players are not ranked by real scores and there is no "winner"!

    ''''''

    I think a similar thing happened - player to Chair - in the same channel's light-hearted game-show Just A Minute; after its Chairman for many, many years, Nicholas Parsons, died. He was in his nineties, and still chairing the show until not long before his death. 

    ''''

    I should add the players in these and similar programmes, with live audiences, are not public entrants, but professional comedy actors.

    The BBC's radio contests open to public entrants are three "serious" quizzes: Counterpoint (about music) and Brain of Britain (general knowledge), both in theatres; and the extremely erudite Round Britain Quiz, made with no audience. The last is played in league format by two teams of two against each other in each show; and the questions are very cryptic hidden-link riddles, usually on strong literary and musical themes.
      June 10, 2023 4:20 PM MDT
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