‘Double Dare’ Host Marc Summers Says Reboot Made ‘Major Mistake’ With Host

In a recent episode of Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia, Marc Summers, best known for hosting the famous Nickelodeon show Double Dare, stopped by to chat about his time on the original show and the 2018 reboot — including some choices the new show’s producers made that he did not think were for the best.

Summers opened up about how he had been pushing for a reboot of the popular children’s ’80s and ’90s game show for years, but wasn’t asked back to host when it finally happened.

He said that he was approached during a meeting at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills in 2018, and told that an influencer had been hired as the host of the show instead. Summers said he didn’t know what an influencer was, and asked, “What the hell does that mean?” However, the reboot’s creators did ask Summers to be involved, and he returned as an Executive Producer and announcer.

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He did share that he got the chance to host the reboot for a single episode, when the host Liza Koshy got sick during taping. He was asked to fill in for her and recalled, “That show that aired with me as the host was the highest-rated episode on the reboot. They made a major mistake, in my estimation, of putting somebody on who … had never hosted a show, and with all due respect, pretty much refused to rehearse.”

He added about game show hosts, “These days, they just put people on who have no idea how to do these things. And some of them are okay, and some of them aren’t. And if you really don’t have the passion for it, it generally doesn’t work.”

If you’re interested in listening to the entire episode, check it out here. Sibilia and Summers also talk about his beginnings as a page at CBS Television City, getting fired from the show The Joker’s Wild, working with Bob Barker on the game show Truth or Consequences and more.

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Game Shows

November 2020

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