The Joker's Wild - Hosts

Hosts

Jack Barry, who created the show and eventually used it to revive his partnership with longtime producer Dan Enright, hosted all versions of the show up until his death in May 1984.

Barry was not the original choice to host, due to his past involvement in the 1950s quiz show scandals. As a result, Allen Ludden hosted the first two pilots for CBS. Barry hosted the local KTLA series in 1971, but CBS was still hesitant to let him host the network run in 1972; while Tom Kennedy, Wink Martindale, and Ludden were the three top choices to host, each was already committed to other shows. They even offered it to Dennis James. Original plans were for James to host Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions' upcoming game show The New Price Is Right, which Mark Goodson had slotted James to host as a weekly nighttime syndicated show. When CBS agreed to a weekday daytime version of New Price, Vice President of Daytime Programming B. Donald "Bud" Grant wanted 15-year Truth or Consequences host Bob Barker, to host New Price instead of James. Barker originally said he would gladly host Joker, but not New Price, however Grant said, "Barker, you will do (New) Price because those other two shows are good, solid game shows that require a traffic cop to run them, and you're not a cop. You have far more talent!" With no alternatives after Grant pushed Barker to New Price (a position he would hold for 35 years), Barry was given the green light to host, but only for a thirteen-week contract.

By January 1973, with no complaints from the viewers or the network and good ratings, Barry signed a regular contract to host the program and continued in that role up to its cancellation in June 1975. Enright was brought on as executive producer of Joker during its final CBS season, and was mentioned by Barry himself on the program's final CBS episode.

Beginning in 1981, Jim Peck occasionally substituted for Barry until Barry died in May 1984. Barry and Joker producer Ron Greenberg had planned for Barry to retire at the end of the 1983–84 season and have Peck assume the full-time hosting duties for Joker at the beginning of the following season, which was to be the syndicated series' eighth. However, after Barry's death, Enright hired Bill Cullen to take over as host. Peck also filled in for Cullen for a few weeks in 1986.

Pat Finn hosted the 1990–1991 version.