At least Cullen made it to this list...

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/art...1624566,00.html

Anne Robinson Out...
Betty White in...

Charles Atkins

Just because I don't much like him, I'd excuse Jack Barry along with Robinson (although in her defense, she managed to get the show sold in the US)

Left out unfairly: Tom Kennedy, Allen Ludden.

But overall, considering the source, a pretty fair list, and one that wouldn't have received too much flaming had it been part of this thread.

Robinson clearly didn't belong (neither did Carson), but replacing her with Betty doesn't make much sense either. It's about hosts, and Betty hosted one long-forgotten show. Yes, she won an Emmy for it, but that's hardly a reason to include her as one of the 15 greatest ever.

As DrBear says, it's a very respectable list put together by someone who balanced a true awareness of our genre with the need to include names their readers had heard of. Sadly, I'm afraid that leaves out some of our own personal favorites.

I agree. Not a bad list. I like John Daly more than Garry Moore, but that's quibbling.

One fact check problem though: he says Jack Barry knew about the "Twenty One" rigging. He may have, but it's hardly an established fact.

According to Barry himself...Jack knew the show was rigged, but didn't know who was going to win each game (feeling he wouldn't be convincing when he built suspense if he knew).

I'm not sure abour Regis' inclusion in this list - the show may have been a major hit in its tme on network TV - but was he really that good as a host. I'd prefer Meredith to him any day - far more personable.

I'd prefer Patrick Wayne to Meredith myself, but that's just me.

Regis is a lot better at hosting Millionaire than Meredith can ever hope to be.

(I know I went a little far with comparing Meredith to Patrick Wayne...she's not nearly as bad as he is as a host, but I don't think she's good at all.)

(I'm gonna regret this.)

Please elaborate. Why do you not think she's good?

I've elaborated on this in the past. I believe the most recent was in our greatest hosts list thread.

Okay, fair enough. Did I regret it?

From what I saw, no, but I enjoyed the sparring. Everyone gets to have their opinion, and I get to tell them why it's wrong. ;)

While still staying on topic, I would be completely fine with Meredith jumping ship and just doing Today if it meant that we got to see 2-1/2 more hours of Tom Bergeron every week.

Yeah, it doesn't look like an issue of actively regretting it (although I see it was ModChris who asked that time, and not me), so much as being Very Not Surprised at the result.

Well, yeah, but Bergeron is on my list of People I Would Watch Read The Phone Book, along with Dick Clark and Alan Rickman.

I like Tom too, but not enough to pick up the AFHV box set.

While we're at it, here's the article for which Time did the game show hosts list as a "web extra"--a tribute to the show, not Barker, as TV's most populist show:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1625199,00.html

At least Tom could read the phone book...unlike many other "celebrities" that are out there today.

And again, written by someone who knows his way around our genre. You may or may not agree with his points, but it's clear he knows what he's talking about.

That was an interesting article--even the parts I disagreed with. But am I the only one who found the following an unfortunate bit of writing/editing?

Twenty-One scandalized the nation--and isn't it quaint to think of Americans being scandalized over a game show?--because people wanted to believe in intellectual Charles Van Doren, who was fed answers. Jeopardy! and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire follow that tradition . . .

Yeah, I kinda groaned at that when I first saw it...