Rating the hosts
Tom Bergeron
* * * * *
The approach: Always game and appropriately wry.
Best moment: The physical comedy -- skipping around the stage and futzing around with Heidi Klum.
Worst moment: None. The man has hosted “America’s Funniest Home Videos” for years and puts up with Samantha Harris weekly. He rises above it all.
--
Heidi Klum
* * *
The approach: Calm, cool, collected -- and fierce, baby.
Best moment: Getting dropped on the floor by Bergeron and looking good doing it.
Worst moment: Having to be stripped down by William Shatner -- and feign surprise -- as a cap to the reality hosts’ prolonged and awkward opening.
--
Howie Mandel
*
The approach: Over-caffeinated.
Best moment: Presenter Neil Patrick Harris going off script to jab: “Thanks to Howie Mandel’s prattling, our bit has been cut.”
Worst moment: Mandel seemed to be suffering from either stage fright or an attention deficit, cutting off his co-hosts and speed-talking.
--
Jeff Probst
* * * *
The approach: Miffed, for having to put up with more Mandel than his co-hosts.
Best moment: Winning his category’s big prize after 16 seasons of grilling conniving castaways on “Survivor.” And cutting off Mandel.
Worst moment: Doing “Dragnet.” Probst was a good sport, but even he knew it was painful.
--
Ryan Seacrest
* *
The approach: Well groomed but aggravated. (Tired from manning the red carpet?)
Best moment: Calling Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes “two of the funniest men on television.”
Worst moment: Deadpanning during Jimmy Kimmel’s judgment of the hosts. Would a smile have killed you, Ryan?
-- Denise Martin
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