Marc Summers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marc Summers (born Marc Berkowitz, November 11, 1951 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American television personality, best known for hosting the children's game show Double Dare on Nickelodeon. He currently hosts Unwrapped and the reality show The Next Food Network Star, both on Food Network.
[edit] Career
Although he held various television production jobs before, Summers' career boosted in 1986 when Nickelodeon hired him as the host of Double Dare. Double Dare was syndicated within two years, and the show's popularity led to other hosting jobs including the syndicated Couch Potatoes in 1989, and Nickelodeon's What Would You Do? in 1991. He also had a rare dramatic performance in the Nickelodeon-produced Halloween programme Mystery Magical Special, which also highlighted his skills as a stage magician. Summers also made celebrity guest rounds on other game shows including Scrabble, Super Password, Talk About, Lingo, and Hollywood Squares.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Summers appeared on television talk shows, including a stint on ABC television's Home Show. After Double Dare's cancellation in 1992, Summers co-hosted Our Home, a daily talk show aimed at homemakers, on Lifetime. Summers left Our Home after a couple of seasons to co-host another Lifetime talk show, Biggers & Summers.
During an interview with Dr. Eric Hollander on Biggers & Summers, Summers realized he may have obsessive compulsive disorder, an ironic discovery considering his most notable hosting jobs (Double Dare and What Would You Do?) were extremely messy and played havoc on his compulsion-driven sensibilities.
Diagnosed and treated, Summers went public about his condition on various television shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show and the "The Today Show". In 1999, Summers co-wrote a book with Dr. Hollander about his experience called Everything In Its Place: My Trials and Triumphs with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
During the 1990s, Summers continued work on other shows, each with varying success. He created and hosted the short-lived children's game show Pick Your Brain; co-hosted Great Day America on the PAX Network; produced I Can't Believe You Said That; and hosted It's a Surprise on Food Network.
Summers returned to Nickelodeon in 2000 as the executive consultant for Double Dare 2000, an updated version of his original show. Two years later, he was the executive producer for another Nickelodeon resurrection, Wild and Crazy Kids. He also helped bury the Nickelodeon Time Capsule with Melissa Joan Hart.
Recently, he returned to television as the host of more shows, including History IQ on the History Channel; the popular Food Network series Unwrapped and its spin-off game show Trivia Unwrapped; and the short-lived Game Show Network series WinTuition. In 2005, Summers became the host of Food Network's reality series The Next Food Network Star. Summers is also on the Board of Overseers at Emerson College.
Summers has hosted stage versions of The Price is Right and credits Bob Barker and The Price is Right for helping him pursue a game show career. It is widely speculated that Summers is a candidate to take over the show's hosting duties in 2007. Summers was a young page at CBS when The Price is Right premiered with The Joker's Wild and Gambit in 1972, and he often asked advice of Barker, Jack Barry and Wink Martindale – the shows' respective hosts – about a hosting career. He claims it the best possible education and training in the game show field, and it was during this time that Summers got his first on-air experience, as a fill-in announcer on The Joker's Wild.
