The Use of Guest Hosts on Monday Night Raw

[Ioz]

Interesting article from Variety:

Celebrities and their handlers may have found an unusual alternative to the traditional talkshow circuit when promoting projects: a wrestling ring.

For the past two months, World Wrestling Entertainment has essentially handed over its "Monday Night Raw" show on USA Network to guest hosts, who arrange matches and interact with the WWE's wrestlers while touting their new movies, TV shows, books and other fare.

Jeremy Piven recently stepped into the ring to promote his laffer "The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard," for Paramount Vantage, while Seth Green pushed "Robot Chicken" on DVD, and Shaquille O'Neal sold his new ABC reality show "Shaq Vs."

Tonight, Freddie Prinze Jr. takes over the show to hype his joining Fox's new season of "24."

WWE has long been keen on identifying ways to increase the audience of its live events, TV shows and pay-per-views. Last year, it decided to make all its TV programming PG in order to become more family friendly. Now, rolling out the red carpet for celebs is a way to make WWE's roster of athletes more pop-culturally relevant. "We wanted a different way to get our product out there and talked about," Stephanie McMahon, WWE's executive VP of creative development and operations, told Daily Variety. "Tying us in with celebrities in Hollywood raises our awareness and gets a variety of people talking about us, which is always a positive place to be. Hopefully it will translate to new viewers."
The move is starting to pay off.

Overall viewership for "Raw" is up 10% since the hosts were introduced in June and is averaging an audience of 5.6 million each week. That's considerable given that "Raw" already was one of USA's strongest performers each week, especially among the lucrative younger male demo it attracts.

"They have something to promote, and we have the platform they need," said Chris McCumber, USA Network's executive VP for marketing and brand strategy.

Outside the ring, WWE is gaining considerable exposure, with ESPN having heavily covered O'Neal's appearance on "Raw." Clips from the show were played when Piven and Green did interviews on yakkers like "Live With Regis and Kelly," "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" and "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." Wrestlers are also getting invited onto the shows as a result of the tie-in with Hollywood talent.

Naturally, USA isn't complaining about any of the extra exposure, considering that any new viewers for "Raw" may stick around and watch one of the network's other shows.

Given how successful the guest hosts have been, WWE plans to continue having them appear on "Raw" at least through the end of the year, and possibly up to WrestleMania 26 next March.

"For right now, it's really working and clicking," McMahon said. "But it's just the beginning."

Upcoming booked talent includes former gameshow host Bob Barker, the Rev. Al Sharpton, "Access Hollywood" co-host Nancy O'Dell, boxer Floyd Mayweather and basketball player LeBron James. Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Ashlee Simpson, the Osbournes, Danny DeVito, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, Jimmy Fallon, Rachael Ray, MC Hammer, Woody Harrelson, Serena Williams and Ashton Kutcher also are in talks for hosting gigs.

While embracing the PG rating has helped WWE attract new advertisers like 7-Eleven and Pepsi, the extra star wattage is only expected to help keep sponsors happy.

"We're letting them feel safe with the PG environment," McMahon said. "By bringing in the celebrities, we're saying, 'If it's OK for them, it's OK for you too.' "

All of this is ironic, of course, because it almost never happened.

The idea came about when the plug was pulled, earlier than planned, on a fictionalized storyline that had Donald Trump buy "Raw" from WWE's colorful chairman Vince McMahon. WWE and USA, however, made it seem a little too real for Wall Street, confusing investors, and creating a small PR headache.

But the resulting media attention gave the McMahons the idea for the guest hosts and the company quickly began booking talent and plastering them all over its shows, websites and magazines. "We've gotten the point across that we are fun, we are entertaining and you are guaranteed to have a good time," Stephanie McMahon said. "We've become a complement to the traditional circuit."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

I don't mind guest hosts, but I'd prefer they at least have some knowledge of wrestling (to avoid "Summerfest" type comments).

[langden alger]

i personally can't stand it....gotta be almost at the katie vick level of vomit enducing for me....but i also have always hated the whole gm concept to begin with so i'm already biased .but i understand. it's getting vince featured on conan and all the other talk shows. it gets raw in the newspaper articles, highights on espn when they have athletes host etc....i'm sure that was the main part of the agenda-aside from them plugging whatever project they have. so who really cares if fans like me are either sitting through it with our heads down or just changing the channel. all i know is that the day that racheal ray, ashton kutcher or kelly ripa are controlling randy orton or jericho is the day that i won't be watching.

[Master Toon]

Interesting article from Variety:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

I don't mind guest hosts, but I'd prefer they at least have some knowledge of wrestling (to avoid "Summerfest" type comments).

Agreed. However I'm glad Piven raised awareness about Summerfest. Last year the turnout was dismal.

[Matt Hazuda]

I'm hoping Sharpton gets booed so hard. He could be a Vicki-level heel if they hand him the right script and he actually knows how to read

[hobbyfan]

All Vince needs is to replace Gewirtz and his cast of idiots with some of Lorne Michaels' staff from Saturday Night Live, and you could go from there. I see some Raw-SNL X-overs in the distance.

[Hobbes829]

They used to get publicity by just putting out a product that a lot of people liked instead of looking desperate by getting celebrities.

During the monday night wars, WWE made a loud noise and people turned their heads, saw something they liked and kept watching for guys like Austin, Vince, Rock, Foley, HHH, HBK, etc.

Now, it's like they are waiving their hands trying to get people to notice them. The celebrity guest hosts isn't nearly as desperate as the giveaway but it's not much better. I'm fine with celebs if they are used sparingly and properly. Austin/Tyson is probably the best case that i can think of.

[Mesousa]

Even though they want it to keep PG, why are the Osbournes there?

[Zorak Masaki]

I'd like to see Stan Lee host, but only if he can write that nights "script" (wrestling is essentially a live-action comic book, so why couldnt a comic writer do a good story for wrestling?)

[Hobbes829]

I'd like to see Stan Lee host, but only if he can write that nights "script" (wrestling is essentially a live-action comic book, so why couldnt a comic writer do a good story for wrestling?)

they have hollywood writers, why can't they do a good job? It's 2 different mediums

[SirLemming]

I don't really mind it, as long as the host is entertaining. Shaq was extremely entertaining. Seth Green was fairly entertaining as well. Jeremy Piven's Asian friend and ZZ Top were most definitely not. But overall, it's spicing up Raw and increasing its mainstream appeal in an otherwise dry period, and it has the side effect of minimizing the "evil GM" antics that have plagued the federation for about 10 years now.

Smackdown is still a better show, but there's no reason Raw can't have the same high match quality/quantity as Smackdown while also having guest hosts. They can start by changing the main event scene for once.

Also: Al Sharpton. I... I have to see that.

[Matt Hazuda]

Even though they want it to keep PG, why are the Osbournes there?

If they wanted to keep it PG, they wouldn't have had Jeremy Piven host a few weeks back advertising an R-rated movie.

[SpongeJosh]

I don't mind guest hosts, but I'd prefer they at least have some knowledge of wrestling (to avoid "Summerfest" type comments).

Guest hosts are fine and dandy as long as the above statement is adhered to. Wrestling knowledge required. Personally I'd prefer more legends hosting and we have gotten a couple so far so keep'em coming.

[Condiment King]

I have a lot of problems with the guest hosts.

Firstly, as people have touched on, wrestling knowledge really is required. And that's not just to avoid Summerfest-esque comments, though that was such an embarrassment. I felt embarrassed for the WWE when it happened even.

But moreover, wrestling knowledge is gotta be required of the hosts because if it's obvious that they aren't fans when they aren't fans, judging by how little they are seemingly enjoying themselves or how unfamiliar they are with the product names, then it just puts a damper on everything. When Jeremy Piven was doing interview after interview for his movie and never mentioning Raw, it just kind of silently buried Raw as if the soon-to-be host didn't care about it and he figured Raw wasn't mainstream enough to mention either. That's how I took it.

Secondly and perhaps my main problem with the guest hosts is that they are absolutely sucking up the show like a vaccuum. At least 20 minutes of the show every week is dedicated to introducing the host and having the host interact with some wrestlers. Each and every week. That gets to be time-consuming. And then if they have additional skits like they have pretty much every week, that's even more time. And it's really just for comedy (which the WWE usually sucks at) and to utilize the guest host while you have him or her. None of it really sets up long-term storylines, outside of maybe Shaq and Big Show. So it's all like a waste. Sgt. Slaughter won't be on the show tonight or in the near future so why devote so much time to establishing his character for just one night? Why turn Jeremy Piven heel with like 15 minutes to go on Raw?

Thirdly the alternative -- a regular general manager of the show -- does not have to be someone who sucks up a lot of attention either. Tiffany is hardly great as a character, but I appreciate that she takes so little time of the show. Teddy Long is a fantastic character, and I don't just say that because he's a babyface. And I don't even say that because I think he's particularly great. I think he's alright. But he's used so sparingly, even recently with the Vince/Long thing, that he almost never takes up that much time on Smackdown. And all his skits usually play into long-term storylines.

Finally, I feel like the guest hosts, as well as other angles/skits Raw does, really plays into how much Smackdown is perceived as the matches show and Raw is the angles show. Smackdown almost always has one match that goes through a commercial break or two. The show has even had two matches like that on more than one occasion. Sometimes the Raw main event goes through a commercial break, but usually Raw is filled with matches that are very short. So the show's midcarders don't get as over because the fans perceive shorter wins in some or even most instances as being less work and thus less of an accomplishment. Honestly this is my personal opinion. I feel like short wins are usually a fluke or some mistake on someone's part. (See: Hernandez vs Rob Terry). A match has to go at least like five minutes to even establish that guy A is destroying guy B and it's not just a fluke, but that's just my opinion. But if you have a five minute match that's back and forth, I perceive it as a lesser accomplishment to come out victorious.

That was too much writing. I'm sorry.

[halinar]

If they wanted to keep it PG, they wouldn't have had Jeremy Piven host a few weeks back advertising an R-rated movie.

It didn't help apparently. I did smile when I saw it's opening weekend numbers.

[dmxx116]

I can't wait for Randy Orton to RKO the hell out of Rachael Ray when she show up on RAW that would be bven better then what Orton did Freddie Prinze Jr last night on RAW.

[Damien]

I think the use of guest hosts is lame, especially since they all act like they care about the fans.
And then, every week (surprise surprise), a wrestler comes out to interrupt and taunt the host, and the host makes a match that irritates the wrestler and/or the wrestler beats him up.
I think I just called the next few weeks.

[dmxx116]

Dennis Miller might host an upcoming RAW http://tv.ign.com/articles/102/1028291p1.html

[TMC1982]

Nancy O'Dell & Maria Menounos to become WWE's 1st female celeb host

[Hobbes829]

ratings might have been up, but ppv buys are down. I haven't a clue as to how live attendence is going.

It's crap like this that is not only putting off paying customers, it's also putting off prospective wrestlers. The business lives and dies on talent. It's gotten so show bizzy, that MMA, football, etc are getting the cream of the crop. They paydays those guys get for the work that they do looks great not only in comparison to wrestling's schedule but also in terms of content. Who wants to be part of a program where the boss pulls his pants down on live tv, or where good athletes get beat by a midget named Hornswaggel?

I still watch pro wrestling but if i miss a show of ppv, i'm not bummed and if i do watch 2 hour shows i tivo it and get through in 45 minutes, only stopping if it's guys that i enjoy watching like HBK, HHH, Punk, Undertaker, Orton, etc.

The guest host concept is way too gimmicky. This smacks of desperation. Remember when WWE didn't have to reach out to celebs to be culturally relevant?

[SirLemming]

The biggest problem with the guest hosts, in my opinion, is the writers having nothing interesting for them to do. Every week you get Chris Jericho & Big Show antagonizing them and getting their comeuppance, Santino mispronouncing their name and doing something stupid, a vaguely thematic Diva match, and something with Chavo. This gets very old. And the wrestlers need to have their own motivations for fighting each other, instead of coming out and saying something wrong to the host and then getting put in a match as punishment.

It's actually just the same problem as the "Evil GM" problem, but with a celebrity instead. Let the wrestlers drive the storylines and let the host be a host. I don't mind them getting involved, like Shaq did, but let them mess with people who don't already have a storyline going on.