These Are Hands Down The Best Reality TV Show Hosts

Summary

• Terry Crews shines as the best host on America's Got Talent, serving as a supportive cheerleader for contestants without stealing the spotlight.
• Gordon Ramsay's fiery personality sets him apart as the top host for reality cooking shows, drawing viewers in with his entertaining antics.
• RuPaul and Jeff Probst stand out as top hosts for reality competition shows, with RuPaul's quick wit and legacy and Jeff's passion and authority.

Throughout television history, there have been many talk show hosts who've become rich. More recently, people like Jeff Probst and Gordon Ramsay have been enjoying a lot of success as reality TV hosts.

In fact, hosts have played a major role in the success of the best reality dating shows and the best reality competition shows. With that in mind, it is fascinating to look at whom the best reality show hosts ever are.

Why Terry Crews Is The Best Host Of A Reality Show With Auditions

For reality shows that feature auditions like American Idol and America's Got Talent, hosts play a unique role. After all, the main stars of these shows are the judges, the studio audience, and the people auditioning.

As a result, the hosts of audition shows must know what their job is. The reason for that is it would quickly become annoying if the hosts tried to pull the spotlight from everyone else involved too often.

Fortunately for everyone involved with America's Got Talent and the show's fans, Terry Crews understands the assignment. Instead of trying to get the spotlight on himself too often, Terry seems to understand that his main role is to serve as a cheerleader of sorts.

Of course, Terry asks the people auditioning questions, and he does so in a likable way. There is no denying that Terry is great at disarming the people who are auditioning even though they are in an incredibly high-pressure situation.

Who has hosted America's Got Talent?

That is one of the ways that Terry serves as a cheerleader for the show and people who are auditioning. The other thing that Terry does for the show in his role as the host is to make fans feel his passion for America's Got Talent.

Thankfully, Terry seems to be genuinely enthusiastic about AGT and the people who are auditioning. In fact, while talking to Parade in January 2024, Terry told the outlet that he would be willing to host AGT for free.

“First of all, everybody tells me never to say this, but I always say this: ‘I would do AGT for free.' I’m not kidding you. It’s that satisfying, it’s that wonderful. To watch these acts go from relative obscurity into worldwide fame, it’s just the most powerful [thing]. Giving someone a Golden Buzzer is better than money. This thing is not about money. It’s never been. It’s about achieving a dream. It’s the reason I moved to Hollywood to chase this thing.”

Why Gordon Ramsay Is The Best Reality Cooking Show Host

Thankfully for anyone who enjoys reality cooking competition shows, the genre has become quite popular over the years. There are even so many shows from the genre that Entertainment Weekly was able to publish a top 20 list in May 2024.

Given the popularity of the genre, that has resulted in there being a slew of reality cooking competition show hosts. With that in mind, it begs an obvious question. What makes Gordon Ramsay the best reality cooking competition show host?

The answer to that is pretty simple: Gordon stands above his peers because he is the only one that viewers tune in specifically to watch. For example, Alton Brown was an extremely entertaining host of the show, but most people watched Cutthroat Kitchen to see how the chefs would mess with each other.

However, the truth of the matter is that Gordon is the biggest reason why Hell's Kitchen has been a success for many years. After all, while fans may like the show's competing chefs, a lot of people tune in to see how Gordon is going to lose it on them.

It is also worth noting that one of Top Chef's hosts could have been in competition for this spot at other times. However, Padma Lakshmi left the show, so she is out of the running and Kristen Kish is too new in the role to be considered the best.

Why Are RuPaul And Jeff Probst The Best Reality Competition Show Hosts?

Ever since RuPaul's Drag Race premiered, RuPaul has proven what makes them the perfect host for the show. The reasons that RuPaul is such a great host for the show fall into two categories; her skills as a host and her legacy.

In terms of RuPaul's ability as a host, she is very quick-witted, which helps the show be so much fun. Given the fact that RuPaul's Drag Race is supposed to be fun to watch, that attribute plays a pivotal role in her role as the show's host.

On top of that, there has never been any doubt that RuPaul is an ambitious person. Some fans may underestimate why that attribute makes RuPaul one of the best reality TV competition show hosts.

Long before the show became a hit, RuPaul was busy becoming a pop culture icon in a world that wasn't welcoming to drag queens. RuPaul's ambition, intelligence, and fearlessness allowed her to become famous and celebrated by a world that far too often hated people like her.

Thanks to everything RuPaul achieved before the show was launched, she arguably was the only person who could have hosted the show early on. After all, RuPaul was the only drag queen who was famous among wide audiences at the time.

As entertaining as RuPaul is on the show, and she is, that isn't the biggest reason why she is so great. Instead, the main reason that RuPaul is such a great host is the show almost certainly wouldn't exist without her.

In 2019, a fan on the r/rupaulsdragrace subreddit asked how the show changed people's life. In response, the most-upvoted response explained how important the show was for them. "Honestly, DR has helped me connect with gay culture in ways I never did before. Came out later in life and didn’t have many gay friends early on. Gay community felt very foreign to my experience, but DR helped me to see the commonality that we do share. Quite literally changed how I look at myself and my queer siblings."

On the other hand, Jeff Probst isn't a great host because Survivor wouldn't exist without him. After all, a slew of other people could have been hired to host Survivor's first season. In fact, The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan told Us Weekly in September 2023 that he still jokes with Jeff Probst about how he almost hosted Survivor.

The thing that makes Jeff such a special reality show host is that he has almost entirely taken over the show. For several years now, Jeff has served as Survivor's host, executive producer, and showrunner.

Given all the roles he takes up, he has far more authority as Survivor's host than his peers. Of course, there is more to hosting Survivor than that.

Jeff Probst is also a perfect host for Survivor because of how passionate he is about the show. During Survivor episodes and interviews about the show, Jeff comes across like he truly loves everything about Survivor. While Jeff makes mistakes, just like every other reality show host, his passion is infectious for viewers.