We're all nobody until somebody notices us, right? That's probably what Simon Cowell is hoping with the choice of Steve Jones as the co-host of the American version of his reality singing competition, "The X Factor."
Yes, the former model is well-known to British audiences thanks to appearances on a number of popular shows, including the children's variety program "T4," the "Guinness World Records Smashed!" special as well as upcoming series ?Drop Zone,? ?Wedding Crashers? and ?101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow.?
But in America? He's as blank a slate as a guy named Ryan Seacrest was before "American Idol" launched in 2002. It's hard to remember now, but back then Seacrest was just a radio guy in Los Angeles, not the new Dick Clark with an exploding multi-media empire that threatens to swallow all of entertainment.
Same with Cat Deeley, who came to fame in the U.K. hosting Saturday morning kids shows in the early 2000s ("Fame Academy," "Stars in Their Eyes"), but burst onto the American scene in 2006 when she started hosting the second season of "So You Think You Can Dance."
She's since gone on to guest host on the syndicated version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?," the U.K. version of "Dance" and guest hosting on the "Today" show, covering the recent royal wedding for CNN and doing spot fill-in duty for Kelly Ripa on "Live With Regis and Kelly."
MTV's own Carson Daly was little known outside of Los Angeles before moving to TV. He started out on the radio in the early 1990s and graduated to a sought-after gig on the morning show on KROQ-FM, which led to his 1998-2002 run as host of "TRL," his nine-year run as host of "Last Call With Carson Daly" and his latest gig, as host of the "Idol" rival, "The Voice."
There's also "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi, a former teenage model who parlayed that into a career writing cookbooks and then the Food Network series "Padma's Passport," as well as a number of movie cameos and a jewelry line.
Jones (and no, not as we hoped, the former guitar player for the Sex Pistols and radio host) was in typical self-deprecating mode about his (current) little-known status in America. "You're probably wondering, who the hell is this douche?" he said when taking the stage for Sunday's Los Angeles first round of auditions for "X Factor."
"I just moved here two days ago."
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