“Home Improvement” Star to Host Bingo America

Remember the bearded sidekick show co-host in Tim Allen’s amazingly successful sitcom, ‘Home Improvement’? Richard Karn has now taken his acting skills in a different direction as the host for the second season of GSN’s ‘Bingo America’.

From being the butt of Allen’s jokes in ‘Home Improvement’ to the host of one of the most successful interactive bingo shows in the United States may not have been the career move that Richard Karn dreamed about, but the facts show that more and more actors are choosing this path.

Statistics show that in the United Kingdom and the USA, game shows are the Next Big Thing among actors hoping to kick-start their floundering careers. According to a report in the New York Times, game show producers are being inundated with calls from agents hoping to have their actors auditioned for the role as host. Perhaps one of the highest placed celebrities to host a bingo show was Patrick Duffy, who took on the role in the first successful season of GSN’s ‘BingoAmerica’. For reasons unknown, it was decided that Duffy would not continue into the second season, and Home Improvement’s Richard Karn will replace him. All GSN would say on the matter was that “Richard is a perfect fit for all the exciting changes viewers will see” and then: “Patrick Duffy was a terrific host and we loved working with him”. The very fact that actors are clamouring to become bingo show hosts is testimony in itself that bingo has really hit the mainstream.  This fact is obvious by the number of actors who are signed up to endorse online bingo sites, especially in the UK.  Celebrities become the official voices for these sites, appearing in advertisements while playing bingo games. Whichever way you look at it, bingo in any form is here to stay!