Here is where I will be posting my reviews of the 5 nominees and who I think will win Outstanding Talk Show Host.

Dr. Oz

The Dr. Oz Show

Airdate: 11/24/10

TRT: 42:07

This was updating show called In Case you missed it. It was divided into 4 segments.

1st segment: Cancer Scare

We saw how Dr. Oz’s colonoscopy show saved a woman’s life because she went for one. We then met a lady who has a history of colon cancer who is too scared to get a colonoscopy. Dr. Oz goes with her and they find 6 polyps. The doctor shared live on the show that 3 were benign and 3 others were precancerous. Dr. Oz shares a chart about when to get a colonoscopy.  We saw the caring heart of Dr. Oz with these guests.

2nd segment: Hidden Killer in Women

We meet a lady that watched a previous Dr. Oz about the hidden killer in women. She listened to the previous guest and she had the same symptoms. She spoke about how she questioned her doctors. It ended up being ovarian cancer just like the previous guest. Dr. Oz shared that he was proud that she listened to her body. He shared the warning signs of ovarian cancer.

3rd segment: Anorexic Man

We see clips from a previous how about a 40 year old man who came on the Dr. Oz show weighing 75 pounds. We see him 10 months later and see how he has progressed. We go on his journey on how he got better and he continues to recover from this illness. Dr. Oz asks some great questions and it shows that he truly cares for this man. He then shows Truth by the Numbers and that this man is getting better.

4th segment: Free Health Clinic

We go with Dr. Oz and his team to Chicago to do a free health clinic. This was the best part of the show. We see the compassion that Dr. Oz has for other people who are dying from their poor health choices.

Overall: This was an excellent submission by Dr. Oz. It shows his love for the people of this country who are hurting. I wish that those who said that they did something because of a previous guest could have met them as a special reunion.

Score:  8/10

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa

Live with Regis and Kelly

Halloween 2010

Airdate: 10/29/10

TRT: 42:06

Where do I begin with this? It was their annual Halloween episode where they dress up as famous people. They came out as the Situation and Snookie. They showed clips from Jersey Shore where they were interposed. Regis spoke out a play he saw. They reenacted the Jet Blue story where Kelly dressed up as the steward that got in trouble. They then came out as Katy Perry and Elmo and talked to Will Ferrell dressed up as a bed bug. He talked about his kids, Halloween and his childhood. He promoted his recent movie Megamind. He was funny despite the fact that Regis and Kelly were asking lame questions. They then dressed up as Jay and Gloria from Modern Family. It was funny even though I do not watch the show. The next segment was a send up of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It was funny as Kelly dressed up as the 3 Kardashian sisters. Regis was Bruce and Art was the long lost sister. The next segment was Kelly dressed up as Rachael Zoe and then it went to the MTV Video Music awards where Kelly was dressed as Cher, Regis was Justin Bieber and Kelly was Lady Gaga. Then they did a Glee musical number featuring Kelly as Rachael and Regis as Sue. This was funny since I am huge Glee fan. Finally they had their annual costume contest where Regis was Steven Tyler and Kelly was Jennifer Lopez. They talked to the finalists.

Overall: This was a weak show. There were no cute celebrity moments; just fluff. They complain that they never win and they won’t win this year. I would have rather have seen a Mother’s Day episode or a fun interview with a celebrity.

Score: 6/10

Rachael Ray

The Rachael Ray Show

Airdate: 5/3/10

TRT: 43:34

This episode was entitled Room 325. I was about an inner city school teacher Wilma Stephenson who teachers inner city students the culinary arts. We meet 2 of the students and hear their back story and how this teacher changed their lives. The culinary classroom gets a kitchen makeover. Bobby Flay surprises the class and the teacher with a cooking lesson. The students then receive a certificate of completion and a scholarship of $5,000. Rachel then does a cooking segment which was fun to watch. She made Louisiana Style Chicken and Fancy Mac and Cheese.

Overall: This was an excellent choice to submit. It showed the caring style of Rachael Ray. It was one story for the entire hour instead of different segments. What else can I say? Kleenex was a must have and it should tear at the heartstrings of the Academy voters.

Score: 10+/10

The Doctors

The Host team of The Doctors

Airdate: 1/29/10

TRT: 40:48

It was entitled The Crisis in Haiti. This episode was when the host team of The Doctors visited Haiti after the devastating earthquake at the beginning of 2010. We saw Haiti through the eyes of the hosts. It showed them a different light than just sitting in a studio.  It was fun to see the hosts each telling their own stories.

Overall: It was a timely episode. The Academy voters will definitely will glued to their TV screen to see what will happen next. I wanted more too.

Score: 10/10

The View

The Host Team of The View

Airdate: 7/29/10

TRT: 38:14

This episode was entitled Red, White and View Edition. It started with the return of Barbara Walters from heart surgery. The entire episode was interviewing President Obama. He talked about his family which made him more relatable that a stodgy president. Each of the ladies had a chance to ask him a hard hitting question. It was fun to see him interact with each of the ladies especially Elizabeth; the anti-Democrat. He shut her down when she asked about unemployment. It then went to more light hearted pop culture questions. It ended with more hard hitting ones.

Overall:  This was the shortest episode of the bunch but it was still fun to watch. They might win because this was the first time a sitting president visited a talk show.

Score: 9/10

My Scores:

1.    Rachael Ray 10+/10

2.   The Doctors 10/10

3.   The View 9/10

4.   Dr. Oz 8/10

5.   Live with Regis and Kelly 6/10

Who Should Win: Rachael Ray

Who Will Win: Rachael Ray

I did this category last year. Rachel Ray had the best submission but lost to Ellent Degeneres. She usually nails her submissions. She is smart at this.

Regis and Kelly submitted their Halloween episode last year. I thought they submitted it because Kelly Ripa can do really funny impersonations. She nailed all of them.

I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel wins again with no Ellen. I think it would be her third time.

Kelly did a great job on most of the impressions. I wish though that Regis and Kelly would submit just a "Normal" episode. Regis and Kelly have a good relationship and it shows when they are just being themselves. The other 4 nominess were smart on what they submitted.

Multiple hosts almost never win. Actually, I'm not sure any multiple host show has won Talk Show Host. With that said, this might be a race between Dr. Oz and Rachael Ray. "Live" could get a farewell boost to honor Regis in his last year hosting, but they can honor him next year when he'll be able to submit his last show.

Based on this analysis, my guess is Oz repeats as host, but "Rachael Ray" could take the Talk Show prize again if she submitted the same episode there. "Ray" has won before with very special on-location shows, but, for whatever reason, voters have never warmed to her as a host. Has any talk show won three times without its host winning even once?

Actually Daniel The View won Outstanding Talk Show Hosts back in 2009.

Ah yes, I forgot about that. Are they the only multiple hosts to win?

Yes they were the first one's to win.

I got talk show last year. Not host.  Most of what I wrote is still true though.

I watched some of Regis and Kelly yesterday when they were talking with AI runner up Lauren and that was so much fun to watch. Regis and Kelly both looked like they were having fun with her. They should submit something like that next year. Sure the Halloween show has huge production value with all the costume changes and such but Regis and Kelly are fun to watch when they are being themselves.

It took me forever just to get logged in to this site; but at last I did.  Anyway, I also received Best Talk Show Host and here is my analysis:

Dr. Mehmet Oz

This was a VERY special episode of Dr. Oz.  It was an updates show, which I always find to be over the top and cloyingly sweet; but this was neither.  In fact it went way too far in the opposite direction.  It didn’t feel special at all until the last seven minutes or so.  In the first segment, he spoke with a woman who went for a colonoscopy after watching him get one.  Dr. Oz even goes with her and holds her hand. Some of the polyps were totally benign and others were precancerous.  Message: She saved her life.  In the second segment, a woman was being regularly misdiagnosed with UTIs, when in fact she had ovarian cancer.  She listened to her body, sought alternative medical advice and saved her life.  The third segment was a little more interesting; it focused on a 40 year old man with anorexia.  After appearing on the show at only 76 lbs, he was rushed off to a treatment show where he regained his strength, balanced his emotions and saved his life.  The resounding message of this episode:  Watching me saves your life.  The final few moments of the show focused on a pop-up free clinic in Chicago that was a follow up to one they had done in Texas last year.  These few moments looked more inspiring than the first thirty.  An entire show about the health crises of those who cannot afford healthcare would have made for a much more riveting show.  Dr. Oz is an affable, passionate physician, but I’ve always felt his charms would be better suited to a question and answer style webcast.  This episode did nothing toward changing my mind.

Dr. Travis Stork, Dr. Lisa Masterson, Dr. Drew Ordon & Dr. Jim Sears (The Doctors)

In this submission, the doctors get out of the studio and head to Haiti.  This appears to be the first part of a multi-show arc that was done in Haiti.  I find it really difficult to evaluate their merits as hosts in an episode like this, because you don’t get a sense of them as individuals, only their collective response to large-scale tragedy.  This would have made a much more appropriate submission for best show rather than best host, but oh well.  The images of the wounded and the destruction they are forced to live among are heartbreaking.  Dr. Stork, who has always felt like the leader of this quartet, is once again the standout voice in this episode.  Not even catastrophic human suffering can quash his charisma and charm.  Dr. Masterson has some really great moments with mothers and children, including a vignette in which she is trying to find a hospital to treat an expectant 41 year old mother with fractures and hypertension.  Dr. Ordon’s experience in plastics looks like it will come in handy when treating a young boy with head wounds, but the actual surgery will not take place until the next episode.  Dr. Sears feels like he is all but missing from this show.  He appears to get his time to shine in the following episode as well.  The subject matter here is unquestionably powerful, but it does little to actually showcase their hosting abilities.  Based on this submission, I would likely nominate two of the hosts, but certainly not the others.  And in an ensemble hosting situation, I feel at least a majority need to be worthy.  That being said, they are certainly more captivating hosts than Dr. Oz.

Rachael Ray

I never thought I would compare Rachael Ray to Morgan Freeman, but in this submission, that’s the most apt comparison I can make.  What I mean by that is that she was essentially a narrator, rather than a true hosting presence.  The show centered on Wilma Stephenson, a teacher of culinary arts at an inner city high school in Philadelphia and the stories of her students.  Rachael’s presence was mostly off camera as the show took a documentary approach to telling Wilma’s story and how her passion positively impacts the lives of less fortunate students.  The show began with the backgrounds of the key players before it moved into a makeover of Wilma’s classroom facilities.  For the touching reveal, Rachael showed up at the high school, gave scholarships to the students and brought along Bobby Flay to give the kids a cooking lesson.  After all of the events at the school, the show returned to the studio for the last ten minutes where the program was awarded a $5,000 grant and years supply of eggs.  Ms. Stephenson was then given an all-inclusive vacation to Anguilla.  The only time Rachael really “hosted” was during the cooking segment where she made Cajun chicken and a low-cal version of baked mac-n-cheese.  Her demeanor was warm and full of admiration for her subject, but she was ultimately not enough of a presence for her to warrant a “Best Host” win.  Like with The Doctors, this submission felt like it should have been for Best Show.  If this was her submission in that category, she has a great shot of winning a second Emmy for the show.

Regis Philbin & Kelly Ripa

Well, this episode was really refreshing after watching the tear-jerking or otherwise serious topic spotlighted in the first three submissions.  Regis & Kelly submitted their annual Halloween spectacular.  Between filmed segments and actual in-studio pieces, the duo managed a total of thirty costumes between them.  They began the show as Snooki and The Situation and then segued into interviewing Will Ferrell as Katy Perry and Elmo.  Most of the humor in this episode was forgettable or borderline corny, but Kelly playing all of the Kardashians was a particular highlight.  She really evoked the different personalities of each of the women (or the lack thereof).  Regis and Kelly also paid tribute to the Lady Gaga Glee episode with the two of them joined by Art Moore and Michael Gelman embodying different incarnations of the singer.  The most surprising part of that segment was the realization that dorky Gelman has a sick body.  While the show itself was fluff compared to three mentioned above, it was the first selection that really allowed the hosts themselves to shine, and shine they did.  My only little quibble was that the DVD was poorly edited in the last few moments, with some rather jarring cuts during the costume competition, but otherwise a nice reel.

Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck & Sherri Shepherd (The View)

The ladies of The View submitted the episode wherein they hosted Barack Obama.  The episode began with the return of Barbara Walters who had been out for quite some time due to heart surgery and then after the first break Obama joined the ladies on stage.  For the first half of the show, the ladies seemed to be on their best behavior.  They took turns asking the president questions about hot button political issues, but did so in a respectful, almost demure way.  Part of these women’s allure is their outspoken, sometimes argumentative behavior and it was starting to be a little bland because they were keeping it all bottled up in front of the president.  But then a segment came along where they talked to the president about pop culture to see how much he pays attention to people like Snooki or Lindsey Lohan.  And this is when Joy’s sarcasm and Sherri’s silliness, Elisabeth’s brusqueness and Whoopi’s wry tongue-in-cheek demeanor made their return, all while Mama Walters smilingly approved and moderated.  This submission balanced the personality of the hosts with the gravity of the subject matter quite well.  Who knew that these women could entertain, inform and behave all at the same time?

Based on the above analysis, here are my rankings:

1.       The Ladies of The View

2.       Regis & Kelly

3.       Rachael Ray    

4.     The Doctors

5.       Dr. Oz