When we get home from a tiring day at work or on a weekend with nothing to do, we switch on our TVs to watch our favorite talk shows by different TV hosts. There have been a lot of hosts that have come and gone over the past decades, and most of those who are still present have withstood the test of time and technology.
Knowing about fun and interesting facts about our favorite TV hosts allows us to get to know them beyond their work on TV. We wonder about their lives off camera and ask things about them, like how old is Maury Povich, where was Oprah born, etc. Read on and be fascinated by these trivia that we have collected of the ten most famous TV hosts on American television.
Ellen Degeneres
Ellen Degeneres is married to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, and is one of the staunchest supporters of the LGBT community. She is the host of the Ellen Show, where she guests all kinds of personalities, where she not only conducts interviews but plays games with them as well. She is also known to prank his famous guests and surprise the audience with goodies and even arranges for avid fans to meet their idols.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah is one of the richest and most successful women in the world. His TV show, Oprah, aired for many years. She is also a philanthropist who does charity work around the world. She is well-known for giving so many goodies to guests on her show. She was born in Mississippi on January 21, 1954, which makes her 61 today. She is reportedly worth $3 billion. Now that’s a lot of money!
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir Leno is not only a TV host. He’s also an actor, comedian, producer, writer and a well-known vintage car collector. His TV show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno aired from 1992 to 2009. He was born on April 28, 1950 in New York. Aside from being a great TV host and actor, he is also famous for his face, which has been the subject of many cartoon sketches.
Conan O’Brien
Conan, or now more popularly known as Coco, is considered the oldest host of the Tonight Show when he did the stint. He was nicknamed Coco by actor Tom Hanks when the latter guested on the Tonight Show. The nickname stuck and so many fans call him Coco. He is also a big fan of Silent Bob, of Jay and Silent Bob fame.
David Letterman
The Late Show with David Letterman ran for 22 years! He has interviewed different personalities and even President Barack Obama. He also dabbled in acting, where he played several characters on different movies. Before Jay Leno took over the Tonight Show, he covered for Johnny Carson more than 50 times, but sadly he did not get the stint when Carson left the Tonight Show. And did you know that at the end of each show, he tosses a pencil? But both ends have erasers on them.
Barbara Walters
Barbara is one of the pillars of television. She has been interviewing actors, singers, athletes, politicians for so many decades now. She is also the host of The View, where she shares the spotlight with other female co-hosts such as Whoopi Goldberg. In 2006 she guested on Oprah and divulged some details included in her memoir, Audition, where she revealed her affair with then-Senator Edward Brooke in the ‘70s.
Maury Povich
Maury Povich, before he had his TV show, Maury, was one half of the duo Ant and Dec. He was born on January 17, 1939. So how old is Maury Povich today? He is 76 years old this day. His show rivaled that of Jerry Springer’s, where guests take DNA tests to see if their children are theirs or not. Even Maury Povich submitted himself to a paternity test to see if he really was not the biological father of his adopted child. What do you know, the DNA test turned out that he was the father of his adopted child. He’s been married twice, first with Phyllis Minkoff in 1962 and then to Connie Chung in 1984.
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers was famous for her sharp tongue and scathing comments, especially on her last show before she passed on, the Fashion Police, where she and other hosts critique celebrities’ fashion sense on the red carpet and even on casual days when they’re caught by paparazzi. She died in 2014 at 81 years old, from complication in her throat surgery. She was known to be a dog lover and has a fascination with Faberge eggs.
Jerry Springer
The Jerry Springer Show has seen so many fights among the guests and even the audiences over the years. The show’s host, jerry Springer was born in a World War II bomb shelter in 1944 in a London underground. He is nicknamed Sultan of Salaciousness for some reason, and he always ends his show with this line: “Until next time, take care of yourself, and each other.” He once served as Mayor of the city of Cincinnati in Ohio.
Larry King
In his show, Larry King Live on CNN, he has done over 30,000 interviews, including all the US president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama. It started to air on June 3, 1985 and lasted until his curtain call on December 16, 2010. His real name is Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, and was born in 1933. He has been married a record eight times! He also has 7 kids with 3 of ex-wives and his present wife.
These TV hosts have become our companions on late night and daytime TV over the years and we have seen their evolution as hosts and individuals through their shows and how their shows have become part of our everyday lives.
