History Main / CarriedByTheHost

* Robert Llewellyn on ''Junkyard Wars''. I became a fan even before I found out he was on ''RedDwarf'', and stopped watching ''Junkyard Wars'' when he left.
* Anderson Cooper on the first two seasons of ''The Mole''. He was by far one of the funniest and most charming game show/reality show hosts out there.

* Roy Walker of ''Series/CatchPhrase''. When he left the show, the show's popularity left with him and the new host found himself with a broken leg mere seconds into his first episode.

*** Actually, the first choice for the emcee position was Geoff Edwards, who, at the time, was hosting ''TreasureHuntUS The New Treasure Hunt'' for Chuck Barris in syndication. However, he turned it down because in addition to his work on ''The New Treasure Hunt'', he had a deal pending with Bob Stewart for what became ''Shoot for the Stars'' on NBC.

*** Actually, the first choice for the emcee position was Geoff Edwards, who, at the time, was hosting ''The New Treasure Hunt'' in syndication. However, he turned it down as he had a deal pending with Bob Stewart for what became ''Shoot for the Stars'' on NBC.

* ThePriceIsRight, without BobBarker, Barker's Beauties, and that oh so glorious skinny-mike will never be the same.
* Viewing of AmericanIdol dropped drastically every time judges were replaced. With Simon gone and now running X-Factor america, it is a safe bet Idol isn't long for life.
* Joel [=McHale=] of TheSoup

* ''{{Mythbusters}}'' owes most of its success to the [[OddCouple dynamic duo]] that is Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. The short-lived show [[FollowTheLeader "Smash Lab"]] tried to replicate the explosions and large-scale experiments similar to Mythbusters, but failed because the hosts weren't ''nearly'' as entertaining when constructing the giant engineering project of the week.
** The two shows had a fundemental difference as well: Mythbusters was about trying to prove or disprove a myth, while SmashLab was mostly about creating solutions in search of problems.
** A show that manages to get it right, but not ''quite'' as perfect as {{Mythbusters}} is TimeWarp as the two hosts actually knew the science behind most of what they were talking about and also had interesting personalities to help keep viewers from getting bored.

* Bob Barker on ''ThePriceIsRight''.

* Humphrey Lyttelton was ''[=~I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue~=]'' to such an extent that his death in 2008 and subsequent replacement by StephenFry, Rob Brydon and Jack Dee has elicited all of the complaints listed above. It's still good, but it's definitely not the ''same''.

* Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond on ''TopGear''. And The Stig, of course. In a slight subversion, both Clarkson and May presented Old ''Top Gear'' before it was canceled, though not at the same time.

* Richard Dawson, and later Ray Combs, both were immensely popular hosts on ''Series/FamilyFeud'', and each brought a lot to the program. Louie Anderson, Richard Karn and John O'Hurley, on the other hand, provide excellent foils, as the show has never recaptured its former popularity with the three new hosts.

** Ken Jennings, a contestant who broke the record for most appearances on a gameshow (74 straight) revived interest in the show when its popularity began to decline somewhat circa 2004 thanks to the sheer ridiculousness of his streak (74 games, two seasons, $2.5 million in overall earnings, setting the record for biggest single-game winnings in show history, etc).

** It is a big reason why spin-offs of Top Gear have never lasted long or even gotten off the ground.

** It was even worse with his later show ''What Would You Do?'' which was JUST as messy but had no set format. Furthermore in the last segment of the show (where they would put cards with various stunts on people's heads and they would have to either do the stunt or visit the various pie contraptions) they always gave Marc the the messiest thing they could think of. There's a reason why they usually ran out of time before they got to him...

* The '70s revival of ''MatchGame'' was all over this trope, taking what could have been a boring parlor game and puttig it in the hands of 6 celebrities and emcee Gene Rayburn, all of whom were much more interesting to watch with their antics than the actual game they were playing. Even better were episodes to be shown later in the week (apparently, the shows for a week were all shot on one day, with somewhere around Wednesday's show everyone taking a lunch break... for the celebrity panel, there were often three, four or five martini lunch breaks, and it showed through the increasingly anarchic behavior of those installments...)

* Just about any show hosted by Bill Cullen that wasn't the original ''Price is Right''. Most of the shows he was associated with went off the air in a year or less (''Winning Streak'', ''Hot Potato'', ''Child's Play'', etc.) but he was such a phenomenal host that he made even the most mediocre game format watchable.

* Robert Llewellyn on ''Junkyard Wars''. I became a fan even before I found out he was on RedDwarf, and stopped watching ''Junkyard Wars'' when he left.

* No one ever, ''ever,'' tuned into the original YouBetYourLife for game value.

* [[TheRunningMan "Who loves you - and who do you love?"]]

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* ''DealOrNoDeal'' wouldn't be half as much fun without Howie Mandel.

* [[TheRunningMan "Who loves you - and who do you love"]]?

** Meanwhile, it's nigh impossible to imagine the show without Ian Hislop (who's never missed an episode) or Paul Merton (who took the eleventh series off and has noted, as have others, that the picked up somewhat after that little experiment).

If the star is replaced by someone else (even temporarily) expect invokations of ReplacementScrappy, TheyChangedItNowItSucks, RuinedFOREVER and {{Discontinuity}} (as close as a nonfiction show can get anyway).

* Literally applied in CashCab.

* ''WhoseLineIsItAnyway?'': Drew Carey or Clive Anderson, depending on whom you ask; a case of BrokenBase.
** I believe the ''real'' answer is Colin and Ryan (or, a case of being Carried By The ''Panelists'')

* No one ever, ''ever,'' tuned into YouBetYourLife for game value.

*Anderson Cooper on the first two seasons of TheMole. He is by far one of the funniest and most charming game show/reality show hosts out there.