Planning Your Host & Style

A good host makes a good show. And at the same time, your host doesn’t have to be the next Oprah Winfrey to make a show work.

But before diving into production, you are going to want to identify who will host and plan some details around their approach, such as tone and style. 

Contentz recommends that organizations make sure that they can replicate host talents enough to produce a quality, recurring show that helps you reach your objectives. A worse case scenario would be producing a show and then the host leaves. If this is not planned for, then it would kill the show and likely waste lots of resources that have been invested to that point.

Plan your hosting approach to where the show can go on whether the host is available or not. This takes understanding your approach to the guests and how to engage them.

Types of Hosts

There are three types of hosts that lead shows from the audience perspective.  It is important that you choose your host style prior to getting too far in production.

Interviewer

An interviewer style host will guide a show with question asking.  They can deliver facts in an opening and closing segment, but they are not relied on for opinion in any way. They prepare a list of questions and tend to be warm enough to get the guest comfortable and to help them start talking but they rarely conflict with a guest. They are a facilitator.

You can find interviewer style hosts online, in your office and at Contentz. The good part about planning your show with an interviewer style host is that you can easily replicate the show, whether they are involved or not. The downside of this host style is that they are not a subject matter expert in the topics that are explored on a show. For example, medical companies often want a subject matter expert to interact with doctors about medical procedures.

Notes on Interview Hosts

• Script consists of questions

• Style is warm and friendly – keeps the conversation going

• Research for these hosts can be easier because it is all new