A Quick-Witted Link in the Chain

George Gray, the host of the new syndicated daytime version of “Weakest Link,” isn’t as intimidating or as caustic as his prime-time counterpart, Anne Robinson. But he does manage to lob a few choice zingers at the contestants.

“They are called the ‘who slams,’” said Gray. Among his best “who slams” is “Who here is the Tito of this Jackson 5?”

“George’s tone is very much in keeping with the philosophy of the show--you call [the contestants] on their flaws,” said Linda Finnell, senior vice president of programming for NBC Enterprises, which is producing the syndicated version. “I know George says he teases people, but I look at him as that bad boy in the class--the one who was cutting up in the back of the room and getting sent to the principal’s office. He’s very adorable in that sort of way. He’s kind of the bad boy you love to love. He’s smart as a whip and very quick and very funny.”

“Weakest Link” began as a daily quiz show on the BBC in England and was quickly followed by an equally successful prime-time version hosted by petite, bespectacled journalist Robinson. NBC introduced its prime-time version--also hosted by Robinson--last spring.

Unlike the hourlong prime-time version, the syndicated series is only 30 minutes. Instead of eight contestants, there are six people vying for $75,000. There is also one less round of questions.

Finnell said the producers searched for months to find the right host. Robinson opted out of the daytime show because of her busy schedule. Not only does she host the NBC nighttime installment, but she still hosts the series in England.

“She has a heck of a commute when she comes over to do the network show,” Finnell said. “When we went to look to find someone for the syndicated show, which is, obviously, a full-time job, everybody kept saying to me, ‘You have to find a journalist like Anne.’ Or somebody else would say, ‘You need to find a stand-up comic because they need to be funny.’ And then somebody would say, ‘No, you need someone who can ask really tough questions every time.’”

In the final analysis, Finnell said, they needed someone who could just do the show successfully. “The really good people make it look easy,” she said. “This is a tough show to do. It’s part game show, part talk show, in a way. I don’t want to say it’s part reality show, but with the vote-off factor and the kick-off factor [of the contestants], I think it is a bit more than being a game show. The host has to have the ability to listen, to be quick on his feet and to be entertaining all at the same time.”

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Gray fit all the requirements. During a recent phone interview, he joked that it was his parole officer who suggested him for the job. “I wear an orange vest under the black suit,” he said with tongue firmly in cheek.

“Everybody involved knew who I was. [Executive producer] Phil Gurin and I had done a pilot for a series a few months earlier. It was for a kind of reality show, and he knew who I was. A lot of the players at NBC Enterprises knew me because they had seen me do warmup [comedy], which I had done for years, for a lot of television shows.”

Among the series he was the warmup act for was the ill-fated daytime talk show with Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim J. Bullock. “It was hysterical,” Gray said. “It was a train wreck. I love train wrecks.”

Prior to “Weakest Link,” Gray hosted TBS’ “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies,” the Game Show Network’s “Extreme Gong” and the Learning Channel’s “Junkyard Wars,” for which he shared an Emmy nomination for outstanding nonfiction program.

“I have flown under the radar,” he said. “For the past five or six years, I have had a television show on the air, but I am not a household name. But it has allowed me to earn my chops. I have been known as the guy who just kind of wings it. It really comes in handy on this show. They said to me, ‘Don’t try to be Anne. Be yourself. Have fun. You are good at what you do, so do it.’ I like winging it.”

The syndicated ‘Weakest Link” is shot on the same set as the prime-time version, though a new podium was made for Gray, who is taller than Robinson. Like Robinson, he is also dressed entirely in black and wears glasses. The spectacles, Gray stresses, are not an affectation.

“I’ll hand my glasses to anybody to let them look through them to prove that I do not see that well,” he said. Though he didn’t wear glasses for his other hosting chores--none of his previous series was scripted--Gray realized he would need his glasses to read the questions to the contestants. “So I said to my friends before I went on the audition, ‘You know, maybe I should wear my glasses for this. I could actually read the questions and it would go with the whole vibe of the show.’ The real treat is I actually can see everybody in the studio!”

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“Weakest Link” can be seen weekdays at 3 and 3:30 p.m. on KNBC. It has been rated TV-G (suitable for all audiences).