ARTICLE ONE: George Gray, US Daytime Weakest Link host, is pleased with the show's performance. Not bad, he figures, against so much competition. Not bad for a 3-month-old program that he calls "the anti-game show."

"It is the exact opposite of everything a game show has ever been," he said in an interview, part of a nationwide tour to meet people at stations airing the show.

"There's not really even a winner -- there's just somebody who loses less. It's never, 'Hey, good job, you won.' It's always, 'Here's the money. By the way (other contestants), you suck.' "

He continues: "You could get (almost) every single question wrong on the show and win. We had a guy who got one question right in the entire show -- and won. But you know what? That's real life. It's not about being the best; it's about being the slimiest suck-up in the real world.

"All the other game shows throughout history have been the person who wins is the one with the most obscure knowledge. On 'Weakest Link,' it doesn't matter. And I get to make fun of everybody."

Gray, 35, who was born in St. Louis and grew up in Tucson, Ariz., says his career has been leading up to this. His credits include a revival of "The Gong Show" called "Extreme Gong," TBS' "Movies for Guys Who Like Movies" and TLC's "Junkyard Wars." The last of those earned him an Emmy nomination -- a sure sign of the apocalypse, he jokes -- although he lost to Jeff Probst of "Survivor."

Along the way, Gray also worked warm-up -- telling jokes to loosen up studio audiences prior to taping TV shows.

That experience, plus years working in comedy clubs, served him well for "The Weakest Link," which subsists on a delicate balance of jokes, trivia questions and humor. After each round, when the contests vote to eliminate one another, Gray will prompt them with lines like "Who doesn't have the brains God gave an ice cube?"

Sometimes, contestants try to out-insult him. Bad move.

He remembers one player who insulted both him and one of the other contestants. This "odd little guy" was standing on an "apple box," a clear plastic stand used to make all the contestants appear to be about the same height. When Gray couldn't take the young man's attitude anymore, he said: "Those are mighty big words from a little man standing on a clear box." From then on, he referred to the contestant as an Oompa Loompa, one of the little people from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

"He didn't get it," Gray said, "but we actually had to stop the tape, people in the audience were laughing so hard."

It's one of the rare times the audience is heard from on "The Weakest Link." All versions of the program -- the prime-time show on NBC and the many copies on countries around the world -- have several common elements: The audience stays mostly silent, the host wears black, and putdowns of the players are the norm. No matter what language the show is in, the contestants are booted with the words "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."

That catch-phrase originated with Anne Robinson, the host of the British and American versions, who plays the stern British schoolmarm to the hilt. Gray met her once and found her nice.

"She knows how to turn on her witch-switch at the moment she wants to," he said, "whereas I don't really play a character. Like it or hate it, whether we're sitting here talking or the camera's rolling, I'm basically the same way. I would say I'm a little less friendly (on the show), but my humor is the same, my cadence is the same. I'm the same person. Oh, and I wear a lot more black."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARTICLE TWO: 'Weakest Link' Host Is A Regular Guy

Go Behind The Scenes With George Gray

Posted: 5:01 p.m. EST January 23, 2002

Updated: 3:03 p.m. EDT April 9, 2002

George Gray started doing warm up for "The Weakest Link." Now he's the big kahuna.

Gray is not your typical Hollywood guy.

"I hate it when they put lipstick on me," he said.

Gray does not drive your typical Hollywood car.

"I've had the same car since college. I'm a total American gear head," he said.

Gray does have his own Hollywood parking space.

"You see Jay Leno's right there. I pulled up the first time and went, 'I'm so cool, I'm so cool,' " Gray said.

And Gray is cool. He's the former host of the Learning Channel's Junkyard Wars.

He's smart, fast on his feet and the host of what he calls the "anti-game show."

Colleagues said that he's a breath of fresh air. They root for Gray.

Gray had big shoes to fill for the daytime game show. The nighttime host, Anne Robinson, is known nationally and internationally for her quick wit and trademark "You are the weakest link ... goodbye!"

"I would say the big difference between Anne Robinson and I is that I look lousy in a black- leather dress," Gray said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARTICLE THREE: A UA alumnus recently landed a job that every schoolyard bully would envy - he gets paid to dish out insults on national television.

George Gray, a 1990 University of Arizona graduate, recently began his tenure as host of the new, syndicated version of "Weakest Link," a game show where the host has free rein to tease contestants as they attempt to bank money before voting off the player they consider the "weakest link."

After the success of the show in Britain and the subsequent success of the hour long U.S. version, "Weakest Link" began airing its syndicated, half-hour long version on Jan. 7 with Gray as its host.

Though he claims his new job is community service at the suggestion of his parole officer, Gray actually auditioned for the show the old-fashioned way, he said.

"I joked around that they had seen just about everybody in Hollywood," Gray said. "I was surprised they didn't call my father."

Gray, who was born in St. Louis and raised in Tucson, got an early start in show business. His mother, a casting director, put him in movies as an extra when he asked. His pay: $35 and a day off school - enough to make any fifth-grader happy

"That's how I got into the movie business - I was a kid trying to avoid studying," he joked.

Gray got his comedy career started in Tucson doing stand-up at Laffs Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Blvd. Additionally, he did stand-up, sketch and improvisational comedy in The Cellar, formerly located in the basement of Memorial Student Union.

Gray took a semester off college to film "Teen Angel," a 1989 movie starring Jason Priestley. Although the film caused him to leave school and live in a motel for the duration of the shoot, he said the experience was eye-opening.

"It has nothing to do with glamour; it had nothing to do with stardom, but I really dig this - I really dig the art form," he said.

After returning to school and graduating with a bachelor's degree in personnel management, Gray "packed his bags and came out to L.A."

After a hosting job on The Learning Channel's "Junkyard Wars" and several other television and film credits, Gray landed the job on "Weakest Link" - a job he said has provided him with one main challenge: "to stop laughing every day.

"I'm having too much fun. I don't have a real job. There's people who work for a living. There's single moms that raise children. I wear make-up for a living; I don't have a real job."

One challenge of Gray's job - a must for any "Weakest Link" host - is to heckle contestants, often using the show's trademark one-line jabs, called "who-slams."

"Who is the Tito of this Jackson 5?" Gray said as an example, before comparing himself to Anne Robinson, the British host of the primetime version.

"When Anne does the slams, Anne can get away with something more intellectualized," he said. "I'm a kid from Tucson saying 'Who's the plastic pink flamingo in front of this trailer park?'"

Pink flamingo or not, Gray has come a long way from being a fifth-grader who ditched class to film movies.

Joel Valdez, UA senior vice president for business affairs, worked with Gray's father and remembers Gray as being "a regular youngster."

"There was kind of a cute movie that was produced here; they did a lot of filming at Tucson High," Valdez said of "Can't Buy Me Love," a 1987 movie filmed in Tucson. "He played the role of some college kid coming back to town, and they're at a party or something. It was kind of funny - not a 'Revenge of the Nerds' type thing."

Gray, who currently divides his time between Los Angeles and his home in Bisbee, said he enjoyed his time at UA.

"I had a great time at the U of A," he said. "It was just tons of fun. Good people, the students are awesome, the campus is beautiful, the bars - great. I used to love to hang around the bars.

"You always know you're in trouble when you show up at The Buffet," he said. "I usually went to The Buffet after finals."

Though he may have had to sacrifice the Tucson bar scene, the former Wildcat said he is happy with his new job.

"I'm having an absolute hoot," he said. "I'm tickled pink to be able to get out for Tucson and represent."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARTICLE FOUR: Though the excitement seems to have waned for NBCs "The Weakest Link," the network is rolling out a syndicated daytime version Monday, January 7. The host is American-born George Gray, 34, who coincidentally a year ago was living in England where the show began. "Little did I know when I was in my little flat watching "Weakest Link," Id ever host the show," said the 34-year-old University of Arizona graduate, who was hosting The Learning Channels "Junkyard Wars" at the time. For a guy whose biggest previous credit was the host of a remake of "The Gong Show" called "Extreme Gong" on The Game Show Network a couple of years ago, Gray is "happy, happy, happy" to follow in Anne Robinsons footsteps. Like Robinson, Gray will be dressed in black. Unlike Robinson, he doesnt wear glasses, and sports a soul patch. The daytime version of the show has the same set, but is scaled down from the prime-time version, its only a half hour long, with only six contestants instead of eight with a grand prize of 75-thousand dollars compared to one million dollars.

He may not have the bite of Anne Robinson, his nighttime counterpart, but Weakest Link daytime host George Gray is having fun.

"Who here is the Tito of this Jackson Five?" he playfully barked during an interview last week at the studios of WPBF Channel 25 in Palm Beach Gardens.

Gray was on a two-day swing through the Palm Beaches to promote the syndicated version of the game show, which airs locally at 4 and 4:30 p.m. weekdays on the ABC affiliate.

Since the half-hour NBC Enterprises-produced show is sold directly to stations, it is broadcast on outlets affiliated with all networks -- not just NBC.

While in the area, Gray attended the station's Health Check expo in West Palm Beach and recorded several localized Weakest Link promos in a WPBF studio.

During an off-the-air interview on the station's Eyewitness News set, the affable 35-year-old St. Louis native attributed his days as a TV audience "warm-up man" for landing his Link role.

He helped warm up audiences for such shows as The JM J. and Tammy Show (which starred JM J. Bullock and Tammy Faye Bakker) and Jones and Jury, a court show featuring Star Jones (now on ABC's The View).

"This ain't my first rodeo," he said of Weakest Link.

"A lot of late-night hosts -- David Letterman, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall -- were warm-up hosts," he said of the job which is designed to whip up audiences into a frenzy before the likes of a Dave or Jay come out on stage.

"What happens is that you're around the show runners, you're around all the executive producers, all the suits, and they look at you and you're funny and engaging with the audience," he said. "You know, they would say, "Why don't we give this kid a chance?' Warm-up acts migrate to being hosts."

The daytime Link is taped on the same set, at NBC Studios in Burbank, Calif., as the one-hour prime-time version.

"Prime time is an hour, the syndicated version is a half-hour. Prime-time has eight contestants, we have six. We have two less rounds than the nighttime show. And my rear end looks huge in a black leather jacket," he said, taking a mirthful dig at the stern Robinson's dark wardrobe.

Gray said he has bumped into Robinson only once -- at NBC. "She said, 'So this is the one who took my job?' She then put on a big smile, shook my hand and said to me, 'Congratulations.' She was wonderful, she went immediately to her character she plays so well. The truth is, she is very, very nice."

Gray said he tapes four shows in one day, but each half-hour installment takes about 90 minutes to produce. "The reason why is that you've got to figure out who's kicking who off, tally the votes, and if there's a tie, we must determine the statistical difference between who's strong and who's weak, based on the points they've earned and the money they've earned or lost.'

The host, who stayed at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, said all of his chats with contestants are unscripted. The put-downs (such as the Tito line) are prepared in advance.

"If you're a journalist and you screw up a question about journalism, I'm going to tease you," he told me. "(The show) is a lot like the old Dean Martin roasts."

As for what he likes to watch on TV, he said "I like anything -- whether it's a game show, reality or a sitcom -- as long as it has an edge and takes a different slant."