Marc Summers explains how he clinched his audition to host “Double Dare”: ‘It changed my life’
Marc Summers explains how he clinched his audition to host “Double Dare”: ‘It changed my life’
Leigh BlickleyMon, October 5, 2026 at 8:46 PM UTC
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Marc Summers on ‘Double Dare’Credit: Courtesy Everett CollectionKey Points -
Marc Summers recounts his audition for Double Dare in the 1980s.
He said his casting “all happened by mistake” thanks to a friend of his.
Double Dare is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
Marc Summers is recalling his audition for Double Dare in the 1980s.
Forty years after the children’s show’s debut, Summers discussed how landing his now famous gig “all happened by mistake” in an interview with PEOPLE.
He explained that his friend, ventriloquist Dave Garrison, called him up one day and told him about an opportunity to host a kids’ game show on a then unknown network, Nickelodeon. Garrison wanted to pivot to behind-the-scenes work, and insisted Summers go to the audition in his place.
“So when I got there, they say, ‘Dave Garrison?’ I said, ‘Dave’s not here, My name is Marc. Can I go instead of him?’ And they said, ‘Sure,’” Summers described. “I did the audition and it went extremely well. I remember running to the payphone and said to my agent, ‘I’ve nailed this. I’m going to get this job.’ And he said, ‘No, I’ve got about 10 other clients going. Good luck.’”
Summers said that, after most auditions, he always tried to get the name and contact information of the casting director, executive producer, and any network executives involved with the project. He ended up securing the number of Mike Klinghoffer—who directed, co-created, and produced Double Dare—called him, and flat out asked if they had found a host yet.
“He said, ‘It’s down to you and another guy,’” Summers explained to PEOPLE, noting that he returned for a callback.
“I went first, then they threw me out of the studio, brought the other guy in. And two days later they called me and they said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the host of Double Dare,’” Summer recalled. “And I said, ‘You auditioned 1,000 people in New York and 1,000 people in L.A. Why did I get the job?’ And he said, ‘Quite honestly, you were about the same, but at the end of his audition, he said, ‘Hey do you guys want me to do something else, or are we done?’ And I looked at the camera and I said, ‘We’ll be back with more Double Dare after this.’”
“And because I threw to commercial, they thought that was more professional,” he concluded, “and it changed my life.”
Marc Summers in June 2018Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Double Dare was a children’s trivia show that included messy, slimy, and gooey “physical challenges” on an obstacle course — including wading through tubs of Jell-O, tossing whipped cream pies, and trying to catch a “meatball” in a bowl of “spaghetti.” It became a huge success and catapulted Summers into mega-celebrity status among kids and families as he fronted the show, and its spinoffs, from 1986 to 1993.
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Summers expanded on his experience hosting Double Dare in a chat with The New York Times in celebration of the show’s big anniversary Monday, Oct. 5.
“I just wanted a job. I was a game show nut,” he told NYT. “My first job was writing Truth or Consequences the last year Bob Barker did it. So I kept going to auditions and they kept saying, ‘Come back when you have gray hair and wrinkles,’ because back in the day, it was Barker and Tom Kennedy and all those kinds of folks and they didn’t want a kid. At the time, although I was 33, I looked like I was 23. It worked in my favor this time because they wanted somebody they thought the kids could relate to.”
Summers told NYT that he assumed he’d be a part of the show for 13 episodes, so he was flabbergasted when “the thing exploded.”
“Right place, right time,” he said of the show’s popularity. “We were on at 5:30 in the afternoon. Moms would often say, ‘Go watch your show while I finish dinner.’”
He continued, “I never did it as a kid’s show. I didn’t want to do a kid’s show. So I didn’t talk to the kids in a squeaky voice. To me, I was doing Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune or The Price Is Right or whatever. I just talked to them like they were grown-ups.”
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Summers went on to host spinoffs Super Sloppy Double Dare and Family Double Dare, as well as What Would You Do? and Uwrapped. But the original Double Dare still holds a place in his heart.
“It was the best job,” he told NYT. “It put me on the map, number one. I had free rein. They let me do whatever I wanted to do. They never once slapped my hand and said, ‘Marc, you can’t do that.’ We toured it for years.”
He added, “We would go out and sell out The Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich. — 20,000 people on a weekend. So I don’t have any negative feelings at all in any way, shape or form.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
