History Main / GuestHost

** Same thing with their announcers. The main announcers were Charlie O'Donnell (1975-80, 1989-2010) and Jack Clark (1980-88), with M.G. Kelly as interim after Jack's death and before Charlie's return. Charlie, Johnny Gilbert and Don Morrow all filled in for Jack at various points, and Don Pardo did two weeks taped at Radio City Music Hall during M.G.'s tenure.
** When Charlie returned, he missed only two weeks in 1995, for which Johnny Gilbert again filled in. After Charlie's death, several announcers rotated until Jim Thornton was chosen as his successor.

* ''{{Have I Got News for You}}'' started out with Angus Deayton who, after damaging news stories about himself, left the show. They started replacing him with guest hosts, which was deemed popular and has yet to actually have a permanent host since Deayton's departure some years ago.

** Similarly, Summer Bartholomew and Cynthia Washington both filled in for original letter-turner Susans Stafford. After Susan left in 1982, Summer, Vicki [=McCarty=] and Vanna White alternated as guest letter-turners until Vanna got the nod. Susan returned for one week in 1986 so Vanna could recover after her boyfriend was killed in a plane crash, and in 1991, Tricia Gist filled in for two weeks to accomodate for Vanna's wedding.

* Sister show ''Radio/AmericanCountryCountdown'' often did the same under the hosting of Bob Kingsley (who held the role from 1978 to 2005). When Kingsley left to start his own show, ''Radio/BobKingsleysCountryTop40'', there was a three-week rotation of guest hosts on ''ACC'' before [[BrooksAndDunn Kix Brooks]] took over. Meanwhile, Bob hands over the mic on his show to singer-songwriter Jeffrey Steele once or twice a year.

* Due to the in-story disappearance of the central character Linkara, ''AtopTheFourthWall'' featured either his girlfriend IronLiz or several of his recurring characters (all played by Linkara himself) guest hosting his VideoReviewShow.

** Same thing with their announcers, too. M.G. Kelly was a guest announcer between Jack Clark's summer 1988 death and original announcer Charlie O'Donnell's return in spring 1989; after Charlie's death in November 2010, several guests filled in until Jim Thornton was chosen as his successor in June 2011.

Examples:

* The 51st series of ''ImSorryIHaventAClue'', had StephenFry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon chair two episodes each, because no one could really replace Humph.

* In the early days when game shows usually taped live, the host and/or announcer would sometimes get a week off while a guest hosted/announced. A notable example is the original 1960s version of ''{{Password}}'', which gave guest hosting duties to announcer Jack Clark and to host Allen Ludden's wife, BettyWhite, on occasion.

* This also happened twice in the long life of ''LetsMakeADeal'': Dennis James filled in for Monty Hall on the original version, and Geoff Edwards filled in on the 1984 revival ''The All-New Let's Make a Deal''.

** Similarly, Summer Bartholomew filled in for original letter-turner Susan Stafford at least once. After Susan left in 1982, Summer, Vicki [=McCarty=] and Vanna White alternated as guest letter-turners until Vanna got the nod. Susan returned for one week in 1986 so Vanna could recover after her boyfriend was killed in a plane crash, and in 1991, Tricia Gist filled in for two weeks to accomodate for Vanna's wedding.

* In 1974, Gene Rayburn guest hosted {{Tattletales}} for a week as regular host Bert Convy played the game with his wife Anne. Gene actually hosted the ''Tattletales'' prototype in 1973, which was originally called ''Celebrity Match Mates'' (Convy would get the job after Gene landed the MatchGame revival).

* {{Saturday Night Live}} may have been initially planned to have a permanent host (There are references to Albert Brooks refusing the position) but started out in 1975 with different guest hosts each week. Thirty-three years later, there still isn't a full-time host.

[[AC:Sketch Comedy]]
* {{Saturday Night Live}} may have been initially planned to have a permanent host (There are references to Albert Brooks refusing the position) but started out in 1975 with different guest hosts each week. Thirty-three years later, there still isn't a full-time host.

* ''{{Have I Got News for You}}'' started out with Angus Deayton who, after damaging news stories about himself, left the show. They started replacing him with guest hosts, which was deemed popular and has yet to actually have a permanent host since Deayton's departure some years ago.
* ''{{Never Mind the Buzzcocks}}'' , much like {{Have I Got News For You}}, had to make do with guest hosts after Mark Lamarr left the show up until Simon Amstell took over the helm. From there Bill Bailey, one of the team captains, left the show with guest team captains filling the gap until finding a permanent one with [[TheMightyBoosh Noel Fielding]]. This stable period ended once Amstell left the show, leaving the show with guest hosts once more. Whether either this or HIGNFY's inability to hold down a permanent host speaks of the indecisiveness of the producers when replacing a big personality host or the indecisiveness of the viewers is best left to the reader.

* {{Saturday Night Live}} may have been initially planned to have a permanent host (There are references to Albert Brooks refusing the position) but started out in 1975 with different guest hosts each week. Thirty-three years later, there still isn't a full-time host.
* ''Later'' had a long string of guest hosts after the departure of Greg Kinnear; Cynthia Garrett became permanent host for a few months, but when she left the show halted production. For a year it became ''Later Presents {{SCTV}}'', a slot for reruns of the 1980s sketch comedy show, before ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' replaced it.

* Charlie Rose had nothing but guest hosts for a short while.
* The whole point of the ''{{Friday Night Project}}'' was to have a guest host on every week while regular hosts will help and support them. Basically, a reverse chat show.
* ''At the Movies'' had a long string of guest co-hosts after Gene Siskel died before settling on Richard Roeper. For medical reasons, Ebert also had guests standing in for him, before Roeper's departure and the show's revamp.

* Parodied by ''TheOnion'' in their video sketches, where Clifford Banes has ''never once'' appeared as host of ''In the Know with Clifford Banes'', owing to an increasingly unlikely series of circumstances.
* [[{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]] is currently attempting this on its flagship show, ''Monday Night RAW'', with varying degrees of success and critique. The supposed reason is that when Trump "bought" the show, he was going to name Ric Flair as the GeneralManager...but when he sold it back to Vince [=McMahon=], ol' Vinnie Mac wouldn't hear of it (canonically, Vince detests Ric on the air, and reports about their backstage relationship vary). Reports are that they intend on running with this guest host concept through [=WrestleMania=] 26.
** Thankfully, however, the guest hosts concept is now over and done with, although it did run for a few months after Wrestlemania 26.
* Due to the in-story disappearance of the central character Linkara, ''AtopTheFourthWall'' featured either his girlfriend IronLiz or several of his recurring characters (all played by Linkara himself) guest hosting his VideoReviewShow.
* The animated series ''TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'', based on ''TalesFromTheCrypt'', was occasionally hijacked by ECComics' other narrators, the Vault-Keeper from ''The Vault of Horror'' and the Old Witch from ''The Haunt of Fear''.
* This used to be a frequent occurrence on {{Game Show}}s:
** In the early days when shows usually taped live, the host and/or announcer would sometimes get a week off while a guest hosted/announced. A notable example is the original 1960s version of ''{{Password}}'', which gave guest hosting duties to announcer Jack Clark and to host Allen Ludden's wife, BettyWhite, on occasion.
*** Much later in his career (1980), Ludden was too ill to host ''PasswordPlus'' for a while. BillCullen filled in for him, while Geoff Edwards temporarily took over for Bill on ''Series/ChainReaction''.
** This also happened twice in the long life of ''LetsMakeADeal'': Dennis James filled in for Monty Hall on the original version, and Geoff Edwards filled in on the 1984 revival ''The All-New Let's Make a Deal''.
** In the 1970s, there were two versions of ''ThePriceIsRight'': the current daytime version, then hosted by Bob Barker, and a nighttime version hosted by Dennis James. James hosted one week of daytime episodes because Bob was ill.
*** ''Price'' also had rotations of guest announcers following the deaths of Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy, and the firing of Rich Fields. Rod's declining health between 2001 and 2003 also led to several fill-ins by Burton Richardson and Randy West (plus one week by Paul Boland). Burton also announced one episode in 2006 because Rich had laryngitis.
*** Also, far too many fill-in models to list.
** Alex Trebek guest-hosted a week of ''WheelOfFortune'' in 1980, and another episode in 1985. On the former, he filled in for Chuck Woolery, and on the latter, he filled in for current host Pat Sajak.
*** He and Pat even traded places on AprilFoolsDay 1997, with Pat and Vanna also playing ''Wheel'' while Pat's wife, Lesly, touched the letters.
*** Similarly, Summer Bartholomew filled in for original letter-turner Susan Stafford at least once. After Susan left in 1982, Summer, Vicki [=McCarty=] and Vanna White alternated as guest letter-turners until Vanna got the nod. Susan returned for one week in 1986 so Vanna could recover after her boyfriend was killed in a plane crash, and in 1991, Tricia Gist filled in for two weeks to accomodate for Vanna's wedding.
*** Same thing with their announcers, too. M.G. Kelly was a guest announcer between Jack Clark's summer 1988 death and original announcer Charlie O'Donnell's return in spring 1989; after Charlie's death in November 2010, several guests filled in until Jim Thornton was chosen as his successor in June 2011.

* Due to the disappearance of the central character Linkara, ''AtopTheFourthWall'' featured several recurring characters (played by the same person) guest hosting his VideoReviewShow.

* ''The Late Show with DavidLetterman'' went to guest hosts while Dave had heart surgery in 2000, and again when he was ill with shingles in 2003. When he was recovering from heart surgery, almost all of the guest hosts refused to sit in his chair.
** When Dave is ill and cannot make a scheduled taping, the usual pool of go-to guest hosts includes ElvisCostello, Kelsey Grammar and his own bandleader, Paul Shaffer.

* ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' went to guest hosts while Dave had heart surgery in 2000, and again when he was ill with shingles in 2003.

* One episode of RealTimeWithBillMaher featured {{SethMacFarlane}} hosting the webcasted Overtime segment in place of Bill; before this, Bill had never had a guest host on Real Time ''at all.''

*** ''Price'' also had rotations of guest announcers following the deaths of Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy, and the firing of Rich Fields. Rod's declining health between 2001 and 2003 also led to several fill-ins by Burton Richardson and Randy West (plus one week by Paul Boland), and Burton filled in for Rich on one episode because Rich had laryngitis.

** The original ''{{Password}}'' had several guest hosts, most notably BettyWhite (wife of then-host Allen Ludden) and then-announcer Jack Clark.
** Much later in his career, Ludden was too ill to host ''PasswordPlus'' for a while. BillCullen filled in for him, while Geoff Edwards temporarily took over for Bill on ''Series/ChainReaction''.
** This also happened twice in the long life of ''LetsMakeADeal'': Dennis James filled in for Monty Hall on the original version, and Geoff Edwards filled in on the 1984 revival ''The All-New Let's Make a Deal''.

* ''TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'' was occasionally hijacked by ECComics' other narrators, the Vault-Keeper from 'Vault of Horror and the Old Witch from ''The Haunt of Fear''.

* [[{{WWE}} World Wrestling Entertainment]] is currently attempting this on its flagship show, ''Monday Night RAW'', with varying degrees of success and critique. The supposed reason is that when [[WorseThanItSounds Donald Trump "bought" the show, he was going to name Ric Flair as the GeneralManager...but when he sold it back to Vince [=McMahon=], ol' Vinnie Mac wouldn't hear of it]] (canonically, Vince detests Ric on the air, and reports about their backstage relationship vary). Reports are that they intend on running with this guest host concept through [=WrestleMania=] 26.

* ''TheTonightShow'': In the later years of his tenure, Johnny Carson would take one day off a week and leave it to guest hosts. Eventually there came to be a single "permanent guest host" (Joan Rivers and Jay Leno both had this position), a phrase referred to by Penn and Teller as the "rare triple oxymoron".

* ''{{Have I Got News for You}}'' started out with Angus Deayton who, after damaging news stories about himself, left the show. They started replacing him with guest hosts, which was deemed popular.
* ''{{Never Mind the Buzzcocks}}'' had a series with only guest hosts after Mark Lamarr left the show, until Simon Amstell took over. Following the departure of former regular, Bill Bailey, it now has a guest team captain instead. And now they've found a permanent team captain in the form of [[TheMightyBoosh Noel Fielding]], but have gone back to guest hosts thanks to Amstell leaving.