Radio
listeners are choosing next week's guest hosts of Disney-ABC's Live
with Regis and Kelly.
With
Kelly Ripa headed off on vacation, the producers of Live decided to find
some female radio personalities to fill in for her during the week of Aug.
17-20.
The
contest was announced during the show on June 22, and producers were quickly
flooded with nominations. After looking at Web links and videos, the
show's producers narrowed it down to their top 100 choices, who were
asked to send in video and audio tape of themselves. Like any casting session,
producers evaluated who they thought looked and sounded the best on TV and
selected ten finalists.
"The
radio people went crazy for this," says Live's Executive
Producer Michael Gelman. "They would all love their big break."
Four of
those ten are going to get that break, with the show announcing on Thursday
(Aug. 12) who viewers selected from these choices:
- Andrea Hiland, KMLE Country 108,
Phoenix; - Anji Corley, 95.5 WPGC,
Washington, D.C.; - Ashley Greco, Z103.5, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada; - Carolina Bermundez, nationally
syndicated co-host of "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show;" - Jayde Donovan, XL 106.7, Orlando,
Fla.; - Jenn Hobby, Q100, Atlanta;
- Kim Iverson, nationally
syndicated host of "Your Time with Kim Iverson;" - Kristin Cruz, KOST 103.5, Los
Angeles; - Malikha Mallette, Power 105.1,
New York; - Shannon Murphy, Channel 955,
Detroit.
It was
up to the ten finalists to run their own marketing campaigns to encourage
listeners to go online and vote at LiveRegisand Kelly.com. Deejays are using
everything in their power to campaign for themselves, including talking up the
show on-air and promoting via their Facebook pages.
"It's
really up to them how hard they want to go for this," says Gelman.
The
winners will get their shot at proving that they should host their own TV
talkers, and they'll have one of TV's smoothest talkers, Regis
Philbin, to help her through it.
"Regis
is the master of live TV," says Gelman. "There is a certain danger
in doing this on live TV but that's what makes it fun."
Should
the ever-perky Kelly Ripa be threatened? "Um, no," says Gelman.
"I think she'll be enjoying her time at the beach."
