This Is The Most Popular Game Show Host in History

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 19, 7:37AM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

This Is The Most Popular Game Show Host in History — © Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Legendary “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek has died at the age of 80. The iconic game-show host, known for his calm and wittiness, has a legion of fans, as evidenced by the outpouring of concern over his more than a year-long public battle with pancreatic cancer.

In honor of his outstanding career, 24/7 Tempo has compiled a list of famous game show hosts by reviewing various media sources and websites, such as the Internet Movie Database. We considered Wikipedia page views to gauge a game show host’s popularity, factored in their longevity and place in television history, and exercised editorial discretion to create our list.

Besides the entertainment value of the format, a game show’s success depends on the personality, charisma, and quick-wittedness of the host who is able to convey the possibility, albeit remote, of getting rich quickly by luck or intelligence. Many hosts have become celebrities in their own right.

Click here to see the most popular game show hosts

Some of television’s earliest game shows projected an erudite and sophisticated image, such as “I’ve Got a Secret,” “What’s My Line” and “To Tell the Truth.” Others, including “The $64,000 Question,” could be intellectually challenging. Dr. Joyce Brothers, who later gained fame as a psychologist, television personality, and columnist, became the only woman to win the top prize on “The $64,000 Question.” In the 1950s, a scandal involving rigged game shows tainted the format and hosts such as Jack Barry were effectively blacklisted from television until the late 1960s. The scandal was depicted in the 1994 movie “Quiz Show,” directed by Robert Redford.

[nativounit]

Game show hosts have been comedians (Groucho Marx on “You Bet Your Life”), playwrights (Moss Hart on “Answer Yes or No”), former athletes (Michael Strahan on “The $100,000 Pyramid”), British imports (Richard Dawson on “Family Feud”), even newsmen (Mike Wallace on a slew of game shows in the 1950s). Nearly all of the hosts of the early game shows were white males. Since then, television has diversified to include women and minority quizmasters, such as Meredith Viera (“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”), Mario Lopez (“Masters of the Maze”), and Steve Harvey (“Family Feud”), who is one of America’s most loved TV personalities.

For the luckier game show hosts, a gig on a quiz program can lead to a long career on TV. Trebek had hosted “Jeopardy!” since 1984. Pat Sajak might have the greatest longevity of any host ever; he’s hosted “Wheel of Fortune” since 1983.

Bob Barker, who helmed “The Price is Right” from 1972 to 2007, won 15 Emmys, 12 of them for Outstanding Game Show Host, which has been awarded since 1974. These are the most popular Emmy winning actors.

Among all those considered, this is the most popular game show host in history:

Ellen DeGeneres (1958-)
> Notable game shows: Ellen’s Game of Games
> Years on air as host: 2017-present
> Wikipedia page views (2 yr.): 8,646,063

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres has become a fixture on television as a talk-show guest and host, game show host, and producer. DeGeneres has been the host of “Ellen’s Game of Games” since 2017. Many of the games on the game show were played on her talk show. She’s been the host of her own talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” since 2003. Known for her effusive, fun-loving personality, DeGeneres has also hosted the Academy Awards, the Grammys, and the Emmys. Her public image has taken a beating lately over accusations by former employees that her show has created a “toxic” work environment.

[recirclink id=825282]
[wallst_email_signup]

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.