Aguest host (orguest presenter in the United Kingdom) is a host, usually of atalk show, that hosts the program in lieu of the regularhost if they fall ill, have another project or commitment, or are unable to host for some other reason.
Guest hosts may be seen as undesirable for a show's producer if they have to be used for an extended period of time, but if they do a well enough job, the guest host may often be able to parlay their run into their own talk show or other project.
This phrase was popularized onThe Tonight Show duringJohnny Carson's30-year reign as host from 1962 to 1992. Toward the end of his tenure, Carson was granted more personal time off, and substitute hosts would be seen on the air more often.
TheLate Show with David Letterman featured several weeks of guest hosts substituting forDavid Letterman in 2000 when Letterman recovered from a quintuple bypass surgery and again in 2003 when he was recovering from shingles. The show also experimented in June 2003 with having guest hosts on Fridays but ceased doing so due to poor ratings. One of the guest hosts,Jimmy Fallon, went on to become host of bothLate Night andThe Tonight Show on NBC. The show also had guest hosts on a one-off basis in 2005 and 2007 when Letterman was unavailable.
The View first became popular with the guest host format in between the arrivals and departures of the program's youngest co-hosts,Debbie Matenopoulos,Lisa Ling, andElisabeth Hasselbeck. Although a variety of celebrities took turns in the chair, only the younger co-hosts were eligible for the job. During its tenth season,The View began featuring a guest host each day; regularBarbara Walters did not appear with anybody yet was considered eligible to replaceStar Jones, who left the previous year. Following the departure ofRosie O'Donnell in 2007 the program looked to return to a panel of five women. The moderator role was given to comedianWhoopi Goldberg in August and Jones' role was given to actress and comedianSherri Shepherd the week following Goldberg's debut.The View used the guest host format in place of Elisabeth Hasselbeck in 2009 while she was on maternity leave.
Of the current network late night talk shows,Jimmy Kimmel Live is the only program that has used guest hosts on a recurring basis. At the end of June 2020 and in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic,Jimmy Kimmel decided to take time off from his late night talk showJimmy Kimmel Live! in July and August 2020 to spend more time with his family and prepare for hosting the72nd Primetime Emmy Awards. He has since continued a break from hosting in those months before the start of the television season in September as a summer tradition, with guest hosts includingAnthony Anderson andChelsea Handler a part of the yearly rotation (except for 2023 due to the parallelWGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, when the show was fully dark). Previously Kimmel has taken time off and had guest hosts as he dealt with personal health matters, including complications from the birth and development of his younger son.
On April 1, 2022,Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon guest hostedJimmy Kimmel Live while Kimmel guest hosted theTonight Show as anApril Fools Joke.[1]
Saturday Night Live was intended originally to have a permanent host, but launched with a guest host format that continues to the present day.
Ellen:Ellen DeGeneres's show had more guest hosts in its last few seasons, and her show's musical director/DJStephen "tWitch" Boss regularly hosted each week's Friday show.
Live with Kelly and Mark: the New York-based show features guest hosts (usually television or Broadway theater actors) when eitherRyan Seacrest orKelly Ripa is away, with comedianAli Wentworth (wife ofGeorge Stephanopoulos, the host of sister programGood Morning America) a long-time part of the rotation. Ripa's husband,Mark Consuelos, also co-hosted with his wife previously, and became the permanent co-host on April 17, 2023 afterRyan Seacrest's departure from the series to move back to the Los Angeles area.
Later: AfterGreg Kinnear left the program in 1996 for a film career, NBC's late night talk show went to a "guest host of the week" format featuring mostly young comedians and actors for two years before settling onCynthia Garrett in 1998.
The Rosie O'Donnell Show: Rosie O'Donnell also used the format during the final season of her own talk show. ComedianCaroline Rhea was given the role of permanent guest host when receiving growing popularity for hosting when O'Donnell was on sick leave the previous year. Following O'Donnell's return, Rhea hosted every Friday edition of the program until it went off the air. Like Joan Rivers withThe Tonight Show, Rhea went on to host her own talk show the following year. It, too, was cancelled after only one season.
The Wendy Williams Show: Despite Williams insisting she would never allow a guest host, actorJerry O'Connell filled in for her several times dating back to March 2018 due to illness or personal issues, and hosted a summer test run of a talk show from the same studio forFox Television Stations that was considered for syndication in the 2021-22 season. Though he did not get that show, he became a co-host onThe Talk forCBS in the summer of 2021, along with hosting the fall 2022 game showPictionary. Guest hosts hosted the thirteenth season as Williams dealt with continuous medical issues, refusing to do further 'at home' editions as she saw them as lower quality after a short run doing so.Sherri Shepherd was named the permanent guest host in February 2022 for the remainder of the season, and the show ended in June 2022 with Shepherd launching a newself-titled show with the same distributors and most of the existing crew in the same time slot in the fall of 2022, as Williams never recovered and was eventually diagnosed withaphasia andfrontotemporal dementia which forced her retirement. The latter move proved to be controversial to Williams' fanbase, though was required as the show's distributor and station base asked for clarity and stability in their marketing of the series.
Today with Jenna & Friends: AfterHoda Kotb's departure fromToday in early 2025, the fourth hour of the program, which is co-hosted byJenna Bush Hager, is currently featuring guest co-hosts who appear for a day or the full week with Hager, with the show's executive producer describing the guest hosts as akin tospeed dating as they try to get a feel for a permanent co-host to replace Kotb.[4]
In the United Kingdom, some shows have guest presenters on a permanent basis.Have I Got News for You has used a differentguest presenter for each show sinceAngus Deayton's departure in 2002. OnThe Jack Docherty Show in the late 1990s,Jack Docherty was absent so often that the show (retitledNot the Jack Docherty Show) more often than not had a fill-in. WhenSimon Amstell left his role onNever Mind the Buzzcocks,guest hosts took over the role to December 2013, not unlike a similar incident duringSeries 18.
The frequency of guest presenters on certain shows has been parodied by theOnion News Network's Clifford Banes character, who never presents his show for a variety of absurd reasons, and is always replaced by a guest presenter.
The mainplot device of theESPN Classic seriesCheap Seats is that "tape librarians"Randy & Jason Sklar are guest hosting the series while the actual host Ron Parker (an in-universe parody of an overly vainSportsCenter anchor played byMichael Showalter) is rehabilitating from the collapse of tape shelving onto him in the show's pilot, a recovery that takes the entire series' four season, 79-episode run. The series' full title is facetiouslyCheap Seats: Without Ron Parker.
Daytime syndicated talk shows of the 1960s and 1970s most often featured a celebrity guest hosting the showalongside the show's host—most notable of these isThe Mike Douglas Show.
Mike Greenberg maintained a show forESPN Radio,Greeny, for several years after the end ofMike & Mike, though by 2024 with voluminous television commitments for ESPN, Greenberg rarely hosted the show the majority of the year and the program featured guest hosts more often than Greenberg despite the show continuing to carry his name. The show ended with Greenberg's final appearance on January 27, 2025, with Clinton Yates taking over the timeslot.[5]
