I thought George Gray improved quite a bit going from Extreme Gong to the syndie Weakest Link.

I think it was that George was able to adapt to the persona they wanted. He was obnoxious on Extreme Gong because it was what they wanted. When Weakest Link came along, I do think that gave him a better opportunity to put his spin on the show. Being an Anne Robinson clone isn't going to work. The format allowed him to adapt to a host that was playfully snarky when he needed to be. If you told me though while he was hosting Extreme Gong that he would later be the TPIR announcer, I would've NEVER believed you.

My initial reaction was Mark L. too, for the same reason.  I think Mark L. started gaining legitimacy was with Russian Roulette.

Graham Elwood too.  Strip Poker?  Meh.  Cram?  Much better.

Same thought with George Gray but each of our cases had much better material to work with.

I would give high marks to Brooke Burns who went from being chained to the prompter on Dog Eat Dog to become king a reliable presence for GSN.

There is a TPIR demo with Bob Hilton announcing. I thought he was very good, better even than Rod Roddy.

The TPIR staff was impressed by Mark L.'s emcee audition. They thought he was "the guy".

Mike O'Malley was so incredibly hyper hosting Get the Picture but improved tremendously hosting GUTS/Global GUTS.