Chuck and critic

At BuzzerBlog Alex Davis has complained lately about the job Chuck Woolery did on Lingo. Of course, Alex can be a useful contrarian indicator for GSN’s audience.

Chuck’s Lingo, for instance, often shows up in GSN’s top ten shows for the day despite Alex’s complaints (and brutal rerun abuse by the network). On the famous other hand, Late Night Liars and Improv-a-Ganza bombed nastily despite Alex’s glowing praise.

But Alex’s comments got me thinking - dangerous, I know - about what a game show host needs to succeed. A few things are obvious: pleasant appearance, listenable voice, ad-libbing ability. Woolery certainly has those, but he also has an everyman quality that helps him wear well with viewers.

Reportedly, Chuck often asked that his flubs be kept in the tape instead of getting edited out. He knew the goofs would keep him from looking like a snooty know-it-all to the audience. I’ve noticed his mistakes on Lingo when he would compliment contestants for a guess, even though it couldn’t be right due to previously eliminated letters.

After a while, Woolery caught on to these goofs and they became less common. But in a weird way he had established his bona fides with the audience as just another guy who was having trouble with a tough word game. Viewers identified.

Alex might say that the flubs just show Woolery was unprepared and lazy. And he’d be partly right. But a lot of viewers at home are lazy, too, so Chuck’s errors didn’t bother them. Just the opposite, if Lingo’s success is any indication.

TECHNICAL UPDATE: Blogger has been up, down, around and about for the last 24 hours or so. My post from Thursday, May 12 on Pawn Games, Spike's new misery-loves-our-camera gamer, has disappeared but may be back sooner or later. At least that's what Blogger says.