7 best/7 worst celebrity game show hosts

[Otm Shank]

USA Today with their list of current celebrity hosts with an apparent inclusion criteria of current broadcast network primetime.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/06/22/best-and-worst-celebrity-game-show-hosts/7768169002/

For those who want to save a click:
BEST
1. Leslie Jones
2. Rob Lowe
3. Jane Lynch
4. Jimmy Kimmel (although I'd argue he was a "game show host" before becoming a "celebrity")
5. Joel McHale
6. Anthony Anderson
7. Elizabeth Banks

WORST
1. Peyton Manning ("dull at best and distracting at worst")
2. Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton
3. Steve Harvey ("a bit of a self-parody")
4. Jamie Foxx (namechecks Jane Krakowski, but doesn't rank her)
5. Craig Ferguson
6. Alec Baldwin
7. Michael Strahan

[Kevin Prather]

But with funnier, more magnetic personalities often playing the game, Strahan falls a little flat in many episodes.

So shame on Strahan for not upstaging the celebrity guests? Is that what I'm hearing?

[BrandonFG]

Putting McHale in the Best list with Strahan in the worst is exactly why people don’t take USA Today seriously.

/Hyperbole
//But still

[urbanpreppie05]

Yeah...they're not getting the clicks from me.

[Loogaroo]

BEST
1. Leslie Jones

WRONG.

5. Joel McHale

NOPE.

[BillCullen1]

I'll trade Leslie and Joel for Michael and Jamie and I'll gladly pay you Tuesday. That's my $0.02.

[ChrisLambert!]

I think spoiler space is no longer needed for an opinion piece.

I'd drop Lowe and McHale from the top list in a heartbeat.   Joel is horribly miscast here and Lowe is perfectly functional but doesn't move the needle for me.

Ferguson and Strahan move up to replace them.

I think Leslie is great on Sweep. *shrug*

 

[JMFabiano]

Do we count Wayne Brady as a celebrity host?  Cause him, Banks (usually), and Strahan are my favorites. 

[chargeradiocom]

Do we count Wayne Brady as a celebrity host?  Cause him, Banks (usually), and Strahan are my favorites.

I assume Brady was excluded because the writer limited this list to prime time. But I would have thought he (and Drew Carey for that matter) would have still qualified because of the nighttime specials. So it was, in my view, an oversight.

I’ll give credit to the writer for catching up on the current shows to write this list. Heck, there are a handful of them I haven’t watched yet. But I think we can all agree, this writer isn’t exactly a game show superfan who looks for the same qualities in a host that we do here.

[JMFabiano]

Do we count Wayne Brady as a celebrity host?  Cause him, Banks (usually), and Strahan are my favorites.

I assume Brady was excluded because the writer limited this list to prime time. But I would have thought he (and Drew Carey for that matter) would have still qualified because of the nighttime specials. So it was, in my view, an oversight.

I’ll give credit to the writer for catching up on the current shows to write this list. Heck, there are a handful of them I haven’t watched yet. But I think we can all agree, this writer isn’t exactly a game show superfan who looks for the same qualities in a host that we do here.

If so...
Brady still gets the nod from me.

[JasonA1]

Seeing Peyton Manning ranked after just one episode airs, coupled with Craig Ferguson placing anywhere on the "worst" list was enough for me to know they don't deserve my click through.

-Jason

[Chuck Sutton]

However, Game of Talents is night time and more recent than Match Game

But, clearly, any list without Ellen is not intended to be exhaustive.

[TonicBH]

I mean, this coming from the same person who still thinks Executive Producer Mike Richards has been the best guest host for Jeopardy! after so many other contenders have come since then makes this list suspect from the get-go.

I usually don't like dunking on the opinions of others, but this is a bad list.

[Neumms]

Ferguson and Strahan move up to replace them.

I think Leslie is great on Sweep. *shrug*

I love Craigy Ferg and I agree on Leslie.

That's the one ABC reboot that improves on the original. The front game is smarter. The set is attractive. Mainly the audience or computerized audience doesn't applaud as dopily and incessantly as on David Ruprecht's, and when they are overly enthusiastic, at least it's for good prize money. When it aired on Lifetime, I thought Ruprecht was earmite annoying, but now I see a spark of humanity in him and realize the writers and producers made it as dumb as it was.

[Jimmy Owen]

Leslie much looser than Bill Malone.